


Total Drama Academy

by JoyVampire



Series: Total Drama vs Dangan Ronpa [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Total Drama
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chatting & Messaging, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Multi, My First Fanfic, Sierra being Sierra, idk just a random idea, most of the characters from both fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-21 13:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 38,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7389598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyVampire/pseuds/JoyVampire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tomoko Fukuhara...an intern on Total Drama. To be specific, the best. Probably the reason why she's been branded as the Ultimate Intern at Drama Peak Academy - a school opened by Chris MacLean as an homage to Japanese high school Hope's Peak.<br/>But compared to the 32 real Ultimates, the 51 reality TV stars, and the other 'mystery' students, what sort of ability is being an intern? And what is the <strong>REAL</strong> reason why this is happening?<br/>Follow Tomoko's freshman experience on Total Drama Academy, and stay tuned for the drama that will inevitably ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first fanfiction I've written that goes beyond the planning stage, so if it isn't good, then that's why. These are my first two fandoms, so I thought I should write a fanfic that merges the two universes. Just a quick note: it's supposed to be set in 2014-2015, so that the Ridonculous Race would start at the end of it. Also, there may be spoilers later on for both fandoms...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  
> Since I'm writing different parts of this fanfiction at the same time, a few characters probably won't be as main as I hoped they would be.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the run-up to the start of the story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to change this due to the release of DR3 Side:Hope, but I'll probably still change it later. Since this is canon divergence, the school in Japan will still be there, but DON'T ASK HOW THAT WOULD WORK. The rest of the Side:Hope content will be the same.

As the sun shone over Japan, a sight that was easily welcomed, a group of people were hard at work building. A pair of girls were pushing a load of wood to one end of the site, with a third offering them bottles of water. A man and woman were inside the building, and a black haired male, identified as Chris McLean, was on the phone with somebody. He was watching a group of three people chatting with each other in the meantime - two men and a woman.

The last one, however, just sat back and watched, a small smile on his face, checking his tablet every so often.

"Chris," he called over, "a word."

Noticing him, he quickly finished his conversation and ran over, spotting the purple haired woman in the maroon suit through the windows.

"What did Sonia say?"

"So far, so good. Mikan says everyone's recovering perfectly, and everyone's in agreement with our proposal."

"Good to hear. And...Junko?"

"Hajime says that Ryota added his Hope Video to the Revival Program when we brought Junko back to life. She's the same as before, minus the despair."

His partner nodded, as they both looked out at everyone again.

"So, you're going off again tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Season six, before we go on a 'hiatus'. I need to make sure the teens are on board too." Chris paused to have a swig of coffee. "You are okay with this, right Byakuya?"

"So long as you don't forget the real reason why we've agreed to doing this," the former affluent progeny stopped and began shouting at the group. "Hagakure, we need more wood over here!"

"Way ahead of ya, Togami-chi!" The man with the afro and glasses ran off with his crystal ball, the two other people following suit.

"Listen Byakuya," Chris began. "I've just realised something. You know how Kyoko became a teacher, and Makoto became the principal? Won't it seem kind of weird to their fellow students if it's like that?"

"We already thought ahead. Kirigiri will start teaching once everyone's used to it, and Naegi will be the principal in secret. We'll make it known in sophomore year."

"Right. I guess that works."

As they finished their conversation again, Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri exited the building. Makoto wore a white shirt, black waistcoat and yellow tie - similar to his Future Foundation uniform. The two of them stopped beside the two other people with Hagakure. Makoto rested a hand on the woman's shoulder, while Kyoko engaged in conversation with Hagakure and the other man. Byakuya heard the mention of "Komaru" and "Mitarai-kun", implying they'd be coming along with the others.

"You sure you'll be able to handle this without me?"

"I think we'll be able to manage," the sarcasm in Byakuya's voice was evident. "Also, we'll need to do something about living arrangements for everyone. While we're sorting out the last couple of things, you can do your own thing."

"Got it," Chris scooped up his coffee cup as he saw a rather crummy limousine approaching. "Anywho, I'll see you in two months!"

Byakuya curtly nodded, still smiling. Chris called back from the limo as he got in.

"Hey, T! I'll see you on Pahkitew Island!"

The limousine pulled away, when Byakuya suddenly became aware of the words that had just left his mouth.

_I'm going to regret that decision, aren't I?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second unnamed person will be revealed in a later instalment to the series (and there's a reason for them being there - oh yeah, and they're an already existing character in one of the two franchises...).


	2. Meet the Intern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The main character, Tomoko Fukuhara, is introduced, as are the other three mystery contestants/students.

**2 MONTHS LATER**

“Hey…Ethan.”

“…”

“Ethan…”

“…”

**“WAKE UP MAGGOT!”**

“S-stop it! Stop! I’m awake!” A kid known as Ethan shot up, a few beads of sweat on his forehead from the sudden wake-up call from Chef Hatchet. He had short dark coloured hair in thick waves, with a spiked fringe covering part of the left side of his face plus a small ahoge, and wore a blue polo shirt with red stripes across it. He also had a pair of dark trousers and monoblack Converse. His entire body was sprawled out over the bench outside a New York airport, with one foot over the back of the bench.

“Hey, Chris. How much longer do we have to wait around?”

“Only a few more minutes," Chris took a swig out of his coffee cup. "You got a text a few minutes ago, by the way."

Ethan pulled out his phone and flipped it open, reading the message that had come through:

 _Just arrived - またね!_ ;D

Smiling at his sister's half-Japanese text message, he sat upright beside Chris. The relationship between Ethan and his sister was kind of weird. To put it simply, they were twins who were separated at birth, the reasons for this being unknown to most people. This meant he grew up his whole life in New York, unlike his sister, who stayed in Japan. He'd go over there every year to spend a couple of days with her, so the two of them were pretty close. However, when she decided to move to Canada, they didn't see each other as often.

Chris looked down at his watch before turning to Chef. "Looks like you're up."

The co-host stood up and headed inside the airport, as another girl came through the other way, the two sharing a nod. She had mid-length dark brown hair with a narrow ahoge, light purple eyes, and was clearly of Asian descent. Her outfit was numerous layers of all dark colours - a short-sleeved black t-shirt underneath a navy button-up shirt (currently unbuttoned), with a black cut-off zip hoodie over the top, a pair of denim shorts ending below the knee, and a pair of purple high-tops. She also had a dark green watch on her right wrist. Ethan recognised her immediately.

"Hey Tomoko! Over here!"

She released a loud yawn before acknowledging her brother. "Hi! How long have you been waiting out here for?"

"No idea -  I ended up napping for a long time so I lost track. Hey Chris, why did you call us in the first place?"

“The two of you are starting at a new high school,” Chris easily lied, having been practically ignored for a while. “With the Total Drama kids, a group of kids from Japan, the two of you, and two others."

The siblings shared a quick look at the mention of the “other two”. Who they were was still a mystery, even to the intern Tomoko.

“But why us again?” She questioned her boss. This was the one season that she had very little insight about.

“You’re my intern, and I need you to be there. Ethan’s there because you need at least one friend there.”

Tomoko just shrugged, taking a bite out of her airport sandwich, while Ethan just sat back, thinking. Eventually, he turned back to Chris. “So… _everyone_ from Total Drama will be there…?”

“Yeah…”

Ethan suddenly lit up. “That means Amy will be there!”

The intern rolled her eyes. “Is that seriously all you ever think about?” Ever since he’d seen Total Drama Pahkitew Island, he’d been harbouring a rather large crush on the mean cheerleader twin. However, it was by no means a Sierra-level crush, and the origins were a mystery. “Besides, just because you’ll be in the same place doesn’t mean she’ll actually talk to you.”

“Hey! A guy can dream, right?”

“Whatever. Anyway, you can save your man’s fantasies for later, and-- who the heck are they?"

Chef came back of the building, this time with two kids who looked Tomoko and Ethan's age behind him. One of them was a girl who had jet black hair that ended at her waist, with a couple of purple streaks down the middle, and a pair of sunglasses keeping it out of her eyes. A purple t-shirt with elbow length black sleeves clung to her chest, and a black plaid skirt sat on her hips. She had a subtle tan, but it was still pretty noticeable. She seemed to be busying herself with something on her phone. To her left was a boy wearing a completely dark outfit like Tomoko: black shirt, black jeans, grey sneakers, black hair. Aside from a few freckles and the fact he didn’t have anything remotely similar to her tan, the two of them looked kind of similar. He was gulping down a coffee, looking straight at the other two.

"Oh, them!" Chris stood between the two pairs. "Ethan and Tomoko, meet your other 'siblings', Tess and Ian. Tess and Ian, Ethan and Tomoko. You four are the mystery contest-- I mean, students!"

"Hey," the boy, Ian, extended a hand to them. Tomoko was first to shake it, while using the other hand to stifle a yawn. "You seem tired."

"Nine hours of connecting flights from Lethbridge."

"Ah," Ian took a sip out of his coffee cup as he changed places with his sister. Meanwhile, Chris was in a heated debate over the phone with the lawyers, further away from the teens.

“For the last time, it’s in a completely different location…exactly - that’s the point…it’s in order to prevent any of the teens from getting seriously injured again…that’s right, a shark-free, bear-free, toxic waste-free environment this time around…no, it’s not artificial…he’s fine! He’ll be out of the wheelchair by November…it was just an attack from a robotic grizzly bear! No big deal...no, you listen to-”

Chris eventually got fed up and tossed his phone away. “I have seriously given up with them! I’ve made things safer for the kids, I’ve made sure there aren’t any sharks, and they still think it’s unethical to start an all new series without any of the contestants knowing about it! Seriously! They’re just like him!”

Suddenly, a tidy, jet-black limousine rolled over Chris' cellphone, before stopping right in front of the six people.

Tomoko just glanced around a couple of times. "This can't be our ride, can it?"

"Oh, it can," Tess stepped in front and climbed into it, with Ian motioning for the other two to go ahead. Ethan clearly didn't take any notice, since he was still staring at the limo, mouth wide open. Tomoko went before him, picking up both of their smaller bags while dragging him along behind, with the other boy bringing up the rear.

As everyone was in, Tomoko rolled the window down and waved at Chris as Chef put everyone's bags into the trunk. "I'll see you after orientation." The two of them left and got into their own limousine (the Lame-o-sine) as the family limousine drove off.

* * *

 

Tomoko and Ethan are unlike most pairs of siblings you’d come across.

Tomoko Fukuhara is an intern on Total Drama, which is the reason behind her title as the Ultimate Intern. Initially from Okinawa in Japan, she can obviously speak the language. Due to her interning experience, she has honed many skills for everyday use, no matter how weird or gross they may have seemed on the show. In general, she comes off as a very considerate and hardworking person, and is highly skilled in most things to do with her interning career, but her speciality would definitely be cooking.

Ethan Fukuhara is an average teenage boy from New York. After meeting his sister for the first time after moving away, he started becoming a fan of numerous anime shows, and has become quite knowledgeable about such things, thus leading to his title as the Ultimate Anime Fanatic. He comes off as rather dork-ish, but is actually a nice and well-intentioned person, although he doesn’t always seem to make the right impression with others. Despite this, he is an outgoing person, whatever the situation. However, he can be serious when called for, and is nowhere near as skilled as his sister at housework.

Despite their differences, the two of them have a highly close-knit bond, and a few things about them are the same: for example, their favourite anime and the fact that they both do music – he plays drums, she plays guitar. They also used to dance together quite a lot when they visited each other, and have got pretty good at it since.

* * *

 

If the group thought the outside of the limousine looked immaculate, the interior was even more grand! There were off-white leather seats by the wall and at the back, with black and white cushions at various points. A couple of TVs had a music video playing on it, as the music ran through the space. A bar also sat at the end closest to the driver, with some kind of drink, an ice bucket, and four champagne glasses sat on it. Not to mention the small bucket of candy which Ethan was devouring, while the other three poured themselves some of the drink - which Tess had assured Tomoko was non-alcoholic.

"What's up with you and alcohol?"

"I'm just so used to the Japanese legal age...it's not until you're 20."

"Oh, right," Tess took a sip of her own, when Tomoko felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw a VERY LONG message from her boss waiting to be read. Knowing it would be about the new season, she read it in her head:

_“I know you had some questions about this whole thing, so here are some answers for you. So basically, this is like a filler season while the team try coming up for more ideas for future series of Total Drama. Apparently, another host is starting a show kind of similar to World Tour, so I’m trying to beat them to it. It’s a hidden camera show, what we’re doing, so the only people who know about it are you, me, Chef, and my assistant…oh yeah, and the viewers._

_“Since the season is called Total Drama Academy, it will last for one school year, but if you all enjoy yourselves, it may carry on for the rest of your high school lives. The people who are coming from Japan were mainly picked up because some stuff was happening…you know, the usual school problems, so the point is to give them a new school. The other two people are…well, if I told you that I'd have to kill you. And you’re a part of it because it’s still a TV show, and you’re still my intern._

_“You'll find some boxes outside your new place - those are a load of essentials you need to put together for everyone arriving. When you get to the place later on, could you try and get it sorted for tomorrow? Thanks."_

She just shrugged and put it away...right now she needed to find out some more about her 'family', so thinking would come later.

"So," Tess put her glass between her knees, "tell us a little about yourself."

"Us? _You_ should tell us about _you_! You know, what's with the limo?"

"I guess that would be a good enough place to start...uh, what are you doing?" Ian looked at Ethan, as a creepy operatic number came from a DVD player he'd gotten out at some point.

"Watching anime. You ever heard of Mirai Nikki?"

"...no...?"

"Don't mind that. It's his...obsession. Anyway, tell us a little about yourselves. Like...what's your title?"

"Title? Oh, right," Tess checked her phone again. "I'm the Ultimate YouTube Sensation, and he's the Ultimate Songwriter. His is obvious, but mine is because I'm a really popular blogger, mainly because I do it all - covers, challenges, you name it!"

Tomoko thought on her words for some time, before leaning forwards until she was directly in her face. "How many subscribers?"

"Give or take 400,000."

"And you're how old?"

"16 and two months."

Tomoko soon broke into a smile. "Impressive," she sat back in her seat again, taking another sip of her drink. "And you?"

Ian just poured himself another glass, looking at his feet.

"How come you're so quiet all of a sudden?"

"I'm just feeling a little--"

"Sometimes he can be sort of shy," Tess completed for him.

"Ah," Ethan looked up from his DVD. "Then maybe we can find out once you're more used to the two of us?"

Ian weakly smiled and nodded, before glancing back down at his feet.

"But more to the point, all this celebrity stuff ROCKS! Tell her about it!" Ethan then went back to his DVD.

"Geez, you really _do_ like that show..." Tess nervously smiled. "Anyway, yeah, in case you didn't notice, our family's pretty rich. We have a limousine, live in a big house...it's pretty cool! It means I can do a lot of shopping, so I'm not complaining!"

"Like I didn't see that one coming..." Tomoko muttered to herself.

"But enough about us-- or rather, me...tell us about you two!"

* * *

 

Finally the 7 hour 45 minute long journey passed, and the limousine pulled up outside the place where the four siblings were supposed to be staying. Sure enough, Tomoko noticed a stack of boxes outside, and started looking inside some of them, while Ian and Ethan got everyone's bags out. Tess just looked over Tomoko's shoulder as she did so. One contained a load of items that looked a lot like iPads, another one simply had a load of tote bags inside it, and both girls jumped sky high when the intern pulled out a pair of underwear from a different box. The boys followed suit when they happened to see them.

“ _These_ are the essentials?” Ian saw a black pair with a weird red design in the centre, dropping them immediately. Tess retrieved them off the floor and looked closer at the design, saying how she'd never seen anything like it in Los Angeles.

“Seems like it,” Ethan cautiously held up a giant white pair, and winced. “But wouldn’t everyone be able to bring their own underwear? How hard is it to put a few pairs of tightie-whities in a bag?”

“You’d be surprised…” Tomoko pulled out another pair, and almost threw up when she realised it was a diamond studded thong. "Anyway, I have a job to do, so I need to put up with all these. You all go ahead."

They all went inside, taking their bags with them, not seeing Tomoko's ultimate disgusted face as she pulled out an EMPTY underwear package.

_This is going to be a LONG job..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 16/8/16  
> I changed the whole layout of this chapter since I hit a writers block for chapter 5 - still not entirely proud of it but whatever
> 
> 4/9/16  
> Changed Ethan's title since I wouldn't be able to write it otherwise
> 
> 21/2/17  
> Made more improvements to the chapter so it's a)more realistic and b)is better in general.


	3. Meet the Ultimates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hope's Peak Ultimate students arrive at the set for the latest season of Total Drama.

By the time Chris and Chef arrived at the place they called Drama Peak Academy, the bus carrying all of the Total Drama teens had already arrived and was being emptied of their bags. All 51 of them were stood outside, waiting to get their stuff back. Both men noticed that Dave was in a wheelchair, still from the “Scuba Bear” accident from last season. While Chef parked, Chris wound the window down a little to hear the teens chatting among themselves.

“Any idea what we’re doing here?”

“Did you get a letter from Chris too?”

“And what’s all this bull about Ultimates?”

“This better not be another series of Total Drama!”

Chris used this as his cue and exited the car, going over to meet them. “It’s been a while, teens!”

Heather strutted up to him. “Is this a new season? Because if it is, NO WAY am I staying here!”

“What’s wrong with another--”

“Thanks to you, I lost my million dollars _twice!_ ”

“S-s-sharks…everywhere!”

“I got mauled by a bear!” Dave slammed his fists down onto the arms of his wheelchair.

The teens went into uproar, only shutting up when Chris brought out the old airhorn. “Zip it! And for the record, this isn’t a new series. I’ll get to that in a sec, but first…I have news!” He turned to face a camera that Chef had revealed out of seemingly nowhere.

“Not a new series, huh?”

“It’s for the blog.” Chris cleared his throat. “It won’t just be these guys here…in fact, 36 new teens will be joining them! Four of them won’t be able to make it today, but the others…”

A bus pulled up into the yard, lightly touching the back of the Lame-o-sine and nudging it forward a few inches.

“These 32 kids are high school students from a Japanese high school called Hope’s Peak Academy.”

“I’ve heard about that,” Scarlett spoke up. “Isn’t it a school for the teenagers in Japan who are the best at what they do, and isn’t it supposed to ‘raise the future hope of the nation’?”

“Correctamundo, Scarlett!” Chris was wary because of last season. “And here comes the first one! Since it’s getting kinda late, I’ll just keep the introductions short and simple.” A girl carrying an art folder and a camera was the first to step off the bus. She had short red hair and wore a school uniform (tie, jumper, skirt etc.). “Welcome **Mahiru Koizumi** , the Ultimate Photographer!” She smiled and gave a friendly wave to everyone, but stopped short after taking one look at most of the boys –most likely Duncan.

Following the photographer was a boy in a dark yellow jumpsuit, with hot pink hair covered by a grey beanie. He carried a box under his arm, which most likely held some tools or machine parts, and he had a wrench in his pocket. A rucksack matching his jumpsuit was hung over one shoulder. “ **Kazuichi Souda** , the Ultimate Mechanic – what’s up man?” Chris held a closed fist out, which Kazuichi bumped against his own.

“Greetings, everyone.”

At the sound of the new voice, Kazuichi turned behind him, and his face went as pink as his hair.

The moment the girl stepped onto the yard, every boy was transfixed. She had silky long blonde hair and perfectly pale skin. She wore a green and white dress, and carried a silver-ish holdall, with no doubt more bags still on the bus. She curtseyed to the rest of the group. “My name is **Sonia Nevermind** , the princess of Novoselic. It’s nice to meet all of you.” Despite being foreign, her English was exceptional. But then again, it had to be since she was a princess. As she walked to the group, she completely blanked Kazuichi (and was fully aware that he was following her).

A girl with purple plaits in a long sailor fuku uniform followed Sonia off the bus. She had a dark satchel sat on her shoulder, and a suitcase in the other. “The Ultimate Writing Prodigy, **Toko Fukawa** , everyone!” She walked straight past Chris, ignoring any friendly looks in her direction and instead moved to the far corner of the group.

“This next guy is the Ultimate Lucky Student, **Makoto Naegi**!” A normal looking kid was next – he wore a black jacket over a zipped up green hoodie, with a pair of red sneakers on his feet, and had an ahoge. Like Mahiru, he waved at the others. A few people couldn’t help noticing the fact that he looked slightly older than the others.

“And now, the donut loving swimmer, **Aoi Asahina**!” Another girl jumped off the bus carrying a duffel bag on one shoulder. She had navy shorts and a red track jacket, with her hair in a ponytail above her head. She was apparently another one of the friendly ones, and once again looked ever so slightly older. Chris couldn’t help but notice that she was running her finger across her hand not long after she started talking to some people.

“And here’s **Mondo Oowada** , the leader of one of Japan’s most feared biker gangs!” This kid wore a white A-shirt, black trousers and a black overcoat with gold Japanese writing covering the back of it. His hairdo was definitely the weirdest of everyone’s so far – it looked almost like a corncob! He just nodded at Chris and waited behind him for a couple of people, making Chris feel sort of uneasy.

Directly behind the biker was a boy wearing a white school uniform and black knee-length boots. He had black hair, red eyes, and abnormally large eyebrows. “The Ultimate Moral Compass, **Kiyotaka Ishimaru**!” This boy suddenly took Chris’ hand a gave it a hefty handshake, before stepping back and saluting.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chris! I am looking forward to our new high school life!” He sounded overly enthusiastic, and louder than the average person.

“Uhh…yeah…and here’s the Ultimate Programmer, **Chihiro Fujisaki**!” Kiyotaka went towards Mondo, who was still waiting behind Chris for the next person. A small girl in a dark green jacket and brown skirt approached the boys, and she was carrying a laptop bag. Mondo put an arm over her shoulder and the three of them walked off together, smiling.

“The Ultimate Baseball Star, **Leon Kuwata**!” A tough looking boy with ginger hair and a goatee stepped off the bus after Chihiro. He wore a white shirt and jacket, and had numerous piercings all over his face. He was messing around with a bit of his hair as he went past the host.

“And now, the tea loving, gothic gambler, **Celestia Ludenberg**!” Chris dropped to a mutter, “…most likely a fake name…” A girl with an apparent obsession with gothic Lolita fashion slowly stepped off the bus. She had twin-drill pigtails and a weird metal thing on one finger. Chef was already unloading her bags from the side of the bus…and there were lots of them.

“Up next, the Ultimate Musician, Ibu--”

“YAHOOOOOOOOO!” A girl in a sailor fuku uniform full on jumped through the bus door before running past Chris and to the group. She had ripped thigh highs and sneakers, one of each being blue and the other being pink. A guitar case was slung over one shoulder. Without much warning, she darted back in front of the camera. “Helloooo everyone! **Ibuki Mioda** here!” She sprinted back towards the group, throwing one arm over Sonia and another over Mahiru.

“Say hello to the Ultimate Team Manager, **Nekomaru Nidai**!” A highly muscular man in a black gakuran, track pants and sandals came off the bus. He carried only a grey duffel bag, and what looked like toilet paper stuck out of the back of his trousers. His face was scrunched up and he was sweating.

“Where’s the bathroom around here? I really need to go…I’ve been holding it for--”

“Sorry dude. Have to wait until everyone’s off the bus.”

Groaning, Nekomaru shuffled to the group while Chris continued the introductions. “This next girl is **Mukuro Ikusaba** , the Ultimate Soldier!” A girl with short black hair in a white shirt and blue skirt followed, with a blank look on her face. A wolf tattoo was on her hand, and she too had a grey holdall. Most were certain that there was a knife holster strapped to her leg, so a couple of people shuffled away from her as she joined the crowd.

“Our next student is the **Ultimate Imposter**!” A boy of roughly Owen’s size forced his form through the doors carrying a cardboard box. He had blonde hair and glasses, and wore a white dinner jacket, white slacks and white dress shoes. “Don’t ask him for his name, because he surprisingly doesn’t have one. All we know is that tomorrow, he could be posing as any one of you.

“And here’s the Ultimate--” Chris paused as someone from inside the bus coughed rather loudly. Rolling his eyes, the host dug into his pocket and pulled out a different cue card, then began deadpanning the writing. “Behold, the Ultimate Breeder, the almighty **Gundam Tanaka** , the Taboo King served by his Four Dark Devas of Destruction.” Gundam marched off the bus and passed Chris, dragging a large trunk. He wore a large jacket and a long purple scarf, with four hamsters poking out of it. A scar tattoo went down his left eye.

“Next, the klutzy Ultimate Nurse, **Mikan Tsumiki**!” A girl in a pale pink shirt and a white apron froze in the bus doors, forcing a shy smile at the group, until a smaller girl shoved her to the floor. She’d ended up in a rather…indecorous…position.

“You’re taking too long, you trashy pig****!” The smaller girl glared at Mikan as she burst into tears.

“I-I-I’m sorry!!”

“A-anyway, next is the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, **Hiyoko Saionji**!”

“Hmmh,” Hiyoko just walked off with her nose in the air towards Mahiru, while a still crying Mikan picked herself up and dragged herself towards the others.

“Here’s **Kyoko Kirigiri** – the Ultimate Detective!” A girl with lilac hair in a blouse and dark purple jacket followed the two girls. A purple satchel went across her body and a pair of gloves were on her hands. She too looked older.

“The Ultimate Cook, **Teruteru Hanamura**!” A shorter boy in a very classy chef’s attire jumped down from the bus. “Chef, you’re probably gonna want to stay there for a while.”

A sweaty and panting Chef, who had just finished unloading Celestia’s bags, just angrily sighed and starting unloading Teruteru’s.

“I would rather you all call me the Ultimate Chef, instead.”

“And speaking of food, this next girl is **Akane Owari** , the Ultimate Gymnast!” A girl in a slightly dirty white shirt and a red skirt carried a bin bag down off the bus. She was digging into what looked like a chicken drumstick…where she’d got it from was a mystery to everyone, since they hadn’t made any stops on the way over.

“And here’s **Byakuya Togami**! The real deal is the Ultimate Affluent Progeny – I say real deal because the Imposter was posing as him before.” A boy who looked similar to the Imposter was next. He was _much_ thinner, and his suit was black, but he looked the same besides that. However, attitude wise, they definitely were _not_ alike. And big surprise, he looked older.

“And now, the stern and serious swordswoman, **Peko Pekoyama**!” A girl in black sailor fuku joined the teens with only a dark sword bag and a small rucksack. She looked at the growing crowd with a nonchalant expression before heading to the back. Another boy followed close behind Peko. He wore a well-tailored pinstripe suit and had a baby face, and carried a black holdall.

“The Ultimate Yakuza, **Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu**! He may act like his title implies, but isn’t all you’d expect.” He did the same thing Peko had done seconds earlier, joining her in the back.

“Now for the total opposite of her twin sister, with too many mannerisms to keep track of – the Ultimate Model, **Junko Enoshima**!” A girl with pinkish pigtails came next. A large ribbon was in her hair and she wore a dress shirt, red miniskirt and black/white tie. If you looked closely enough, you could see a black and white bear motif where the two colours meet.

“ **Hifumi Yamada** is our next one. As the Ultimate Doujin Author, he has an abnormal love of 2D.” Another rather large boy in a rucksack followed the model. He wore a white shirt and orange tie, and a rucksack sat on his shoulders. He pulled a suitcase down the steps.

“And here’s the Ultimate Martial Artist, **Sakura Ooga** \-- GYAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Chris was highly startled by this girl…or at least, he thought they were a girl. A highly muscular student with long white hair and ripped sailor fuku stood in front of the host. They carried a khaki holdall in one hand, looked down at Chris for a moment, and walked towards Hina.

“ **Nagito Komaeda** – the _other_ Ultimate Lucky Student, with an unhealthy love of hope! Because there’d be two Lucky Students otherwise, let’s call him the Ultimate Ultimate Fanatic.” It took a while for Chris to notice this boy due to Sakura still being in front of him. He had white marshmallow hair and a dark green coat, with a pretty pale complexion. A rucksack sat on his shoulders. And there was one other thing...oh yeah, the robotic left arm. He smiled at everyone and joined the middle of the group.

“This here is **Chiaki Nanami** , the Ultimate Gamer!” A rather cute girl in an equally as cute green hoodie was close behind Nagito. She had a pink cat rucksack and was heavily engrossed in her game. “Welcome to Drama Peak, Ch--” Chris stopped himself as he noticed she’d stopped a few feet away from him…and was fast asleep. “Hello…Chiaki?”

“…”

“Okay…moving on. Here’s the Ultimate Hope, **Hajime Hinata**!” A kid in a white shirt and green tie came down off the bus. He had hair almost equal to Makoto’s, one green eye and another red, and he looked like another one of the normal ones. Once again, their only luggage was a duffel bag. Hajime stopped behind the drowsy gamer.

“She tends to do that quite a lot.” He sighed happily and pulled her over to Nagito.

“Next, the world-famous pop idol, **Sayaka Maizono**!” A very cute teen with blue hair in a blue and white sailor fuku walked past Chris, giving him a light smile. She joined Junko and Mukuro in the back of the group, failing to notice the looks she was getting from most of the Total Drama boys (and Leon). A couple of girls also squealed.

“And finally, the 3-time flunker with 30% accuracy – the Ultimate Clairvoyant, **Yasuhiro Hagakure**!” If some of the others had looked older, the last student didn’t look like a student in the slightest. He had afro-ish hair and three different shirts on. What looked like a crystal ball and a pair of glasses bulged out of his pocket, and he hauled a trunk like Gundam’s behind him (only this one was more old and battered).

“Now that we’ve introduced everyone, let me explain how this works. This building you’re in front of is Drama Peak Academy, the school you’ll be attending for the next four years!”

Murmurs went around the group.

“A certain few of you may be wondering why exactly you’re here. Well, here’s what happened with the kids from Hope’s Peak. After certain…things…started happening in Japan, in particular with their school, we decided to rehabilitate the 32 former students we could find from Hope’s Peak Academy, which as Scarlett pointed out is a school fit for only the most elite high school students in Japan. The details of what went down…they aren’t really important at this point in time, but that’s all you need to know. As for you kids from Total Drama, I thought it would be a good idea for you to spend some more time together as an homage to the time you spent with each other over the last two years, while Total Drama goes on a hiatus. Meaning of course, this is not a new season, just a chance for you guys to spend some quality time together.”

“Yeah, right,” Gwen called from the very back, “what’s the catch?”

“No catch, just a normal school. Anyway, next order of business, the new students who aren’t here. There’s one a few of you will probably recognise, but the other three are kind of related to them. You’ll probably meet them tomorrow at orientation. Third order of business. Welcome packs for your time at the academy will be handed out tomorrow by one of the new kids. In there will be a load of essentials for your time here, but most importantly, your ElectroIDs. On your IDs, you’ll find student profiles, a map of the building, and lots more interesting new features that you’ll discover eventually. Some food will have been prepared, since some of you probably wouldn’t have eaten in a while, so whenever you’re in the cafeteria tomorrow, just dig in. Oh, and I’ll be dropping in now and then after today, just so you know. So, have fun, and I’ll see you all…wait a minute, where’s Nekomaru?”

The ground suddenly started shaking under everyone’s feet, and dust billowed from every loose crack of the building, completely shrouding the yard. Chris heard somebody yelling _“kuso ga”_ from somewhere in the storm. He was no Japanese expert, but he could only assume it was…

“Never mind…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope some of you noticed the reference to DR3 - not many (if any at all) characters from Future Arc will be appearing in this, but a couple will in later fanfictions. The next chapter will have some interactions between the fandoms/OCs in it.


	4. Inside the Academy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four so-called 'mystery contestants' enter Total Drama Academy, and possibly forge some new friendships with the others.

Over the course of 12 hours, Tomoko had managed to learn some stuff about her apparent ‘family’.

Tess Costello was a literal description of a girly girl. Her and her twin brother had lived in Los Angeles for their whole lives, which was where she began the life that would lead to her becoming the Ultimate YouTube Sensation. Her channel of vlogs and song covers had over 400,000 subscribers, and she was somewhat a celebrity in her hometown. Not to mention she lived a celebrity type lifestyle too – her own personal shopper, subscribed to NME magazine, her house was practically a mansion, too!

Ian Costello has a celebrity-esque lifestyle like his older twin. He has a similar interest in music, and a passionate way with words, making him fit for the title of Ultimate Songwriter. Having been discovered in 4th grade means he’s had years to perfect his skills. And not only does he have talent and money, but most girls in his middle school considered him a heartthrob. However, on the inside, he can tend to be quite a shy guy. “And with good reason…” Whatever it was due to, none of them found out.

* * *

 

 **12:17pm**  
The gymnasium was a lot bigger than any of them had expected – you wouldn’t even see room for it from the outside! At the very back was a stage with red curtains going across the back and on both sides. Sets of seats had been installed by the walls for watching things such as sports games. Way too many seats – how many people did he think would ever be showing up to this place?! At the moment, the four of them were alone in there. There was some kind of utility cart by the stage, which everyone helped Tomoko set the tote bags down onto, save for their own. The tote bags were a natural colour, and had a weird bunny motif in the bottom left corner of it.

Tess took a seat near the door of the gym, while Ethan had made an instant beeline for the cafeteria, but had to return a few times in order to ask for directions.

“I think I’ll try and find my classroom,” Ian followed his apparent brother at a normal pace, with Tomoko opting to do the same, pushing the utility cart in front of her. Tess, now alone, just shrugged and stayed sat down in the gym, flicking through one of her magazines and waiting for someone to eventually show their face. She honestly had no idea who she expected to encounter here – sure, she already knew about the people like Heather and Lindsay, but when it came to the Japanese students…

Her thoughts were answered a couple of minutes later when she heard the doors open, and a group of three Total Drama girls came in: the two aforementioned, plus Dakota. Each of them carried one of Tomoko’s tote bags over one shoulder. At first, it appeared as though none of them had noticed her, but this was proven wrong when she heard Lindsay squealing. Looking up in surprise, she saw the blonde pointing at her with one hand, and holding her phone in the other.

*FLASH*

After blinking a couple of times and rubbing her eyes, Lindsay was suddenly directly in her face, waving a small notebook and pen.

“No way! You’re Tess Costello! _The_ Tess Costello! Can I get an autograph?”

“Uh, okay…” she took the pen and scribbled her name down, while the other two girls got closer. She noticed that Dakota’s skin had a dark tinge to it, and was still kind of tall from the toxic waste incident.

“Looks like the rumours are true, then. To think that such a celebrity would be one of the mystery students,” Heather seemed almost impressed. “I guess Chris isn’t as much of a freeloader as we all thought.”

A short silence, followed by laughter on the parts of all four girls.

“What’re you all laughing about?” The door opened again, and two girls that Tess hadn’t seen before came in. They too had tote bags on them.

“Hi Sayaka! Hi Junko!” Dakota grinned and waved as the two Hope’s Peak girls got closer. Junko smiled back – although it was sort of an unnerving smile – and Sayaka waved.

“Who?”

“Oh, right. You weren’t around yesterday. That’s Sayaka Maizono and Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Idol and Ultimate Model. Given what you do, you’ll be perfect for each other.”

“You’re a singer too?” Sayaka came up to her enthusiastically, but not near as close as Lindsay had previously been.

“I have a YouTube channel, and I do the odd cover, but I doubt I’m anywhere as near as popular as you are.”

“No kidding,” Junko remarked to herself, but still loud enough for her to hear.

“Ignore her,” Sayaka said. “She tends to do that to a lot of people. Anyway, we should all go and look for where our classrooms are. I think Class 2 is on this floor, but a little far away from here.”

All four Western girls turned to the idol in bewilderment as they got towards the double doors. “W-we never mentioned our class…how did you know?”

“Because I’m an ESPer.”

“…”

Sayaka laughed, slipping an arm over Tess’ shoulder. “Just kidding! I just have great intuition.”

“Right…” Still mostly left in confusion, the six girls made their way towards their classroom…wherever it was.

* * *

 

Ian’s class, Class 1, was in a classroom on the ground floor, so it was easier to get to than he thought. The rooms for classes 1, 2 and 4 were situated on the ground floor, while 3 and 5 were on the floor above. As well as the entrance hall, gymnasium and canteen on the ground floor, there was also a storage room and co-ed bathrooms on the level above. The interior of the school was proven to be as tacky as the exterior, only just save for the gymnasium.

By the time Ian got to his classroom, he noticed someone outside the door, holding a tote bag, meaning Tomoko had been this way. He saw they had ginger hair and possibly a goatee, a white jacket and a pair of jeans. He didn’t recognise this guy from any season of Total Drama, so he thought it best to introduce himself. Although, he had to remind himself to not suddenly go all shy.

“Hey, is this Class 1?” This kid made him feel mildly intimidated upon first look.

“Think so…wait, did I see you yesterday?”

“I don’t think so…are you from Hope’s Peak Academy?”

“Yeah! The name’s Leon Kuwata, Ultimate Baseball Star!” He held out a fist.

“Ian Costello.” The other boy lightly tapped his own fist against Leon’s. “So you must be pretty good at baseball?”

Leon sighed. “Kinda…but either way, I hate it.”

Ian was just left confused. “Then why--”

“I wanna be a musician instead,” Leon interjected. “Y’know, like the Sex Pistols and all that.”

“Oh…punk music then. So you got into Hope’s Peak solely on a sports scholarship then?”

“All I need is some kind of band and I’m sorted!” He didn’t seem to be listening to Ian anymore.

He nervously smiled, a little bit of sweat rolling down his head. “Well, I hope it all works out for you.”

“Anyway, what’s your title?”

“Didn’t I mention it? Then, I’m the Ultimate Songwriter.”

Leon then slowly looked him in the eyes, almost smirking, making Ian feel uneasy. “Did you say songwriter…?”

* * *

 

For the average quality of Total Drama food, what was in the cafeteria all looked pretty good and…not toxic. As well as all of the plates set out on the tables, there were originally 32 yellow bento boxes for the Japanese students – some of which were already gone. He noticed Chef in the kitchen cooking something that smelled pretty appetising. Ethan went up to grab a plate, and grinned as Chef dropped a load of the stuff onto it.

“Woah, these scrambled eggs smell awesome!”

Chef stared at him silently for a while, then started laughing out of nowhere. “Scrambled eggs…” Chef collapsed onto the floor, laughing even louder. Ethan shrugged and started making his way towards a table with other foodstuffs on it, picking a few things off and going to a table by the wall.

A couple of people had already gathered and were shovelling the food into their systems. He could have sworn that the girl called Akane had been up three times already…and was now going up a fourth time. It looked like all-out war as Owen and Sugar were wrestling over one of the platters. The only two people in the room who seemed sane in any way at all was the girl in the red tracksuit and the other girl who most people thought was a male. From what Tomoko had been doing last night, he remembered they were called Aoi Asahina (or Hina for short) and Sakura Oogami.

Hina picked out what looked like a donut…or maybe three…and the two girls approached Ethan’s table. As Sakura got even closer, he felt himself getting more and more terrified.

“Is anyone else sitting here?”

“Uhh…” he glanced around for sight of anyone in his class or family, “I don’t think so. Go ahead.”

“Thanks!” Hina smiled and pulled up a seat, with Sakura taking the one beside her. “I don’t think I saw you yesterday.”

“Are you perhaps,” Sakura started, “one of the so-called ‘mystery students’?”

“I suppose you could call me that,” he seemed almost flattered by this. “My name’s Ethan, the Ultimate Anime Fanatic.”

“Okay,” Hina set her food down, and started drawing some Japanese symbols on her hand, muttering each syllable of Ethan’s name to herself: イー…サ…ン…

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Haven’t you heard of this? They say if you write someone’s name on your hand three times, you’ll remember it!”

“I…don’t think that’s a thing…anyway, aren’t you two the Ultimate Swimmer and Ultimate Martial Artist?”

“That is correct,” Sakura replied, taking a sip of protein coffee.

“That means you must be the best of your age in Japan – if not the world! Right?” Being in the presence of high school students with actual, genuine talents was amazing for Ethan, and also because he hadn’t really spoken to many girls in his lifetime…well, except for Tomoko.

“Yeah! I was on track for the Olympics before we came here, and Sakura-chan has an unbroken 400-win streak in MMA fighting.”

“That’s…awesome. It makes my knowledge-of-anime talent seem like total crap.”

“As long as it’s something you’re good at, you shouldn’t worry about it,” Hina’s smile widened. Something about it made Ethan forget about how bad he thought his title was.

“But don't you find that title kind of...you know, lame?”

Much to his surprise, the swimmer just laughed. “It’s okay! Trust me, there are people _much_ worse here.” Neither girl noticed the slight red tint in Ethan’s cheeks.

“Anyway, I’m gonna grab some more food. Owen’s just arrived, so the whole thing could be gone in five seconds.” He stood up, collecting his plate and making a move to go to the table again, but was stopped by Sakura.

“If it isn’t any trouble, would you mind bringing a protein coffee with you?”

“Oh, sure thing. Hina?”

“I’m okay for now.”

Ethan nodded, going into a sprint as Owen got closer to the food table. The two friends watched from where they were sat in the meantime.

“Ethan seems like a nice person,” Hina took a bite out of one of her donuts. “We should probably hang out with him.”

Sakura merely nodded at her best friend. “I agree. It would be beneficial if we befriend some students from this Total Drama show.”

Meanwhile, as Ethan went back to the table carrying a full plate and a protein coffee, Owen went to where Chef was still working and scooped up a mound of what was being served.

“Mmmm, scrambled eggs!”

Chef just continued whooping and laughing on the floor.

* * *

 

Chris McLean had always been considered a cheapskate, with little-to-no regards to the safety and wellbeing of others, by most of the contestants, especially given the living conditions on every season. Not to mention the Jamaican plane crash, the toxic waste, and every other instance. This attitude was probably why he’d picked a spot as old and crappy as this for the sight of his new season.

And why Tomoko had to push that goddamn trolley upstairs without any hope of coming across an elevator.

It made matters worse that she couldn’t give them to somebody else, since her classroom was on the next floor up. Sure, she’d managed to get rid of a few outside Leon Kuwata's class and outside the canteen, but the ElectroIDs were still making it pretty heavy. It had already rolled back downstairs once – fortunately, nothing fell out of it – and she sure as hell didn’t want to imagine what would happen if something _did_ fall out…

Jasmine had walked past at some point and offered to lend a hand, which Tomoko had politely declined, and the same thing happened later on with Nekomaru. In the end, she'd made it up the first section of the staircase, when the quiet purple haired girl who she remembered as Kyoko Kirigiri noticed her.

"You look like you're struggling with that."

"Congratulations, Sherlock...oh! Sorry!" She instantly dropped the sarcastic tone when she remembered what the other girl's title was.

"Honest mistake," her reaction didn't change, and she hadn't moved from her spot either. It stayed like this, as Tomoko went back to putting her focus on forcing the trolley up the stairs, with no success at all. This continued for a few minutes until Tomoko faced the detective, a bit red in the face from exhaustion.

"...a little bit of help please?"

"I was wondering how long it would take until you asked," Kyoko stood on the opposite side, and effortlessly removed one of the wheels from an oversized crevice in the bottom step. "There. That was most likely what was slowing you down."

"I thought it seemed a bit too heavy. Thanks," the two girls picked up one end of the trolley (Tomoko more easily than Kyoko), and they carried it up to the top of the staircase, Kyoko picking her own bag as they set it down.

"It wasn't a problem. I'll see you later, Fukuhara-san." Kyoko returned to her own classroom, which looked like the same one as Ethan's. As for Kyoko...it wouldn't be practical to call them friends after such a minor encounter, but maybe after a couple of weeks...?

Tomoko continued making her way to her own classroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be a continuation of the inter-fandom reactions.


	5. Inside the Academy Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A continuation from the last chapter

Classroom 3 looked pretty normal. Well, once you got past the existing condition of the place. There were ten desks around the classroom, each one being able to seat two or three people. Clearly, not everyone in the class was there, but those who were there were deciding on who would sit at which desk: so far, Owen and Noah were sat together, as were Izzy and LeShawna. The Chiaki girl was going over to Mikan's desk at the front, and the two boys she was often hanging out with - Hajime Hinata and Nagito Komaeda - were together at the desk across from them. Tomoko thought it would be best if she found a seat, too. Glancing around, she spotted a pretty wild character sat alone at one of the desks, leaning over her desk to chat to Chiaki and Mikan in front. This was obviously Ibuki Mioda, there was no doubting it. And it didn't take long for her to notice her looking in their direction and waved her over.

"Haiiiiiiiiiii! Who're you?"

"I'm Tomoko Fukuhara. It's nice to meet you Ibuki!"

"H-h-hello there, Fukuhara-san. M-my name is Mikan T-Tsumiki," the timid nurse said back.

"Ugigi! Tomoko-chan knows Ibuki's name! Is Tomoko-chan a psychic?!"

She laughed it off. "No, Mioda-san. Chris told me all your names. I know him because I'm the Ultimate Intern. I worked on his show."

"That would make sense," Mikan thought, as Ibuki shouted across the classroom.

"Good morning Kazuichi-chan, Gundam-chan!"

"Yo!" Kazuichi slid into one of the desks close to the back of the class, with Gundam headed towards the same one for some reason (since the two boys apparently disliked each other). Gundam merely nodded to the class for now, letting his hamsters run wild around the classroom.

_Okay, that makes twelve people in the class so far. Who else is there to come?_

"Morning, everyone," Makoto was the next one into the classroom, choosing to take the second desk from the back, with two more people following him inside - Hina and Sakura.

_Make that fifteen._

"So," Hajime looked round at everyone as Hina and Sakura took the desk at the very back that was still open, behind Makoto. "What does everyone think of this place?"

"The people are great so far!" Hina beamed. "There's this one guy called Ethan who I had a talk with over lunch. He seems like a cool guy!"

"Indeed."

"If the one who bought this place is Chris, then the man clearly hasn't changed a bit!"

"I agree with LeShawna," Noah briefly looked up from a book he was reading. "If I had the choice, I'd be long gone by now. Mind you, after three seasons working with him, you do sort of adjust to it and it becomes less of an issue."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Courtney tries to sue again."

LeShawna laughed, leaning across to Tomoko's desk and punching her lightly on the shoulder. "Right you are, new girl!"

"But how's the food? Just as good as before?"

Hina stood up. "Oh yeah! I was just down there with Sakura-chan, and their donuts taste like perfection!"

"Is that all you're going to focus on?"

Tomoko then stood up to leave, just as quickly as she'd arrived. "I think someone's still missing from the class, so I better find them."

"Ah, okay," Chiaki seemed slightly disappointed at this. "Then, we can get to know you tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure. See you guys later!"

And with that, she left the classroom with the half-full trolley in front of her. At least, with some help from her classmates.

* * *

 

The room to Class 2 was almost exactly the same as Class 3, except for an extra couple of desks. Almost everybody was there, and had mostly sorted themselves into their desks. Tess and Sayaka had the desk behind Junko and Dakota (unfortunately for them, Heather and Lindsay ended up in a different class). Also in the front were Shawn and Dave, with Hiyoko and Mahiru behind them. Topher and Scott were behind Junko, with Sammy and Jasmine behind them. Beardo and Leonard were second from the back, and Sam and Rodney were in the last open desk.

"The moment I get wi-fi back," Sayaka nudged her new friend, "I'll have to check out some of your videos! We could even do a collaboration at some point if you wanted!"

"Yeah, sounds awesome!"

The two girls' attention was then suddenly called to the door when another girl came through the door with a tote bag like them. For a moment, they mistook her for Sammy, but then they remembered she was at the back. Which meant it was Amy.

"Hey girls, is this seat taken?" She pointed to the open spot beside Junko.

"No. Go ahead."

"Thanks," she set her bag on top of her desk before looking at the four other girls. "So...why are all of you here? I mean, what are you 'titles'?"

"Sayaka's an idol, Dakota's Ultimate Actress, I'm Ultimate YouTube Sensation, and--"

"I have two titles! Ultimate Model... _and_ Ultimate Analyst!"

"Why didn't you tell us this sooner?"

"Sayaka, did you know about this?" The idol just shook her head. "But what about you, Amy?"

"I'm the Ultimate Cheerleader," Amy scoffed. "Obviously."

"But what about Samey?"

"Get this...she's the Ultimate Twin Sister, although I can't imagine why. After all, Spare-amy sucks!"

Junko and Dakota started laughing along with this, while Tess watched Sayaka. She was just staring at the back of the class. Following her gaze, she noticed Sammy with her head down, muttering something to Jasmine. Tess and Sayaka were never ones to be bitchy, despite their popular girl statuses - maybe hanging out with Amy wouldn't be such a good idea. Not that they had a say in it.

"Hey, Tessie!"

"Hmm? Oh, Dakota, you were talking to me?"

"How do you think Heather's doing in her class?"

"Well, from what I heard my 'sister' say..."

* * *

 

Not only did her class have none of her friends (unless one was to count Lindsay) in it, it was also the only one with none of the Hope's Peak students. Heather buried her face in one hand, while angrily drumming her fingers on the table. Getting ever the more sick of it, she whipped her cell out of her top and selected Dakota's number.

"Heather? How's it going?"

"Let's see...I'm stuck having to listen to Ella's never ending singing, Sierra constantly feeling the need to snap photos of everybody, what's left of Feral Zeke, Justin asking every girl whether he looks ugly, AND being in Sugar's line of fire. Does that answer your question?"

"..."

"..."

"We're planning on getting out soon anyway. Wanna meet up with us outside our classroom?"

"I'll be there in two." Hanging up, Heather grabbed Lindsay roughly by the arm and dragged her out of the classroom door, with the latter waving behind her.

"Bye Tyler!"

* * *

 

So far, Ian's class wasn't that bad. Akane and Nekomaru had the seats at the very back to the right, along with Hifumi and the Ultimate Imposter - still posing as Byakuya Togami - on the left hand desk. Just in front of them to the left were Celestia and Mukuro, and to the right were a group of three - Zoey, Scarlett and Toko. Next in front were himself and Leon on the left, with Fuyuhiko and Peko to the right. At the very front were Courtney and Gwen, plus Mike, Brick and Cameron. The real Byakuya had his own desk between the two back desks, and he didn't seem remotely impressed by the condition of the place.

So far, they'd all proven to be friendly enough...or in some cases, too quiet to bother at the moment (Peko and Fuyuhiko for example). Right now, however, they all seemed busy enough with their own things: Akane and the Imposter with their food, Hifumi with a new drawing of his, Celestia with her tea, and Courtney with some large book.

"Leon, are they always like this?"

"Some of them are. Owari and Nidai are normally way louder than this. You should have been on the bus yesterday!"

"I...don't think I'd like to imagine it," Ian rested his head on his hands.

"Give it a day and it'll be totally different. Especially with Fukawa back there...just wait until she sneezes!"

"Why? What happens then?"

Leon just smirked and started scribbling something down on a sheet of paper, with Ian looking more confused than ever.

* * *

 

Class 5 was, in Ethan's mind, quite an unpredictable class. With the likes of Kyoko and Sonia, Beth and Bridgette, you'd imagine it to be calm. But when you add it with Geoff, DJ, Duncan and Teruteru...

Yikes.

Taking in a breath, he pushed open the door to his classroom, but froze once he saw the scene going on:

Right at the front, Duncan had Harold in a headlock, with Hagakure, DJ, Anne Maria, Staci and Sonia all watching. Teruteru was being repeatedly slapped on the head with Beth's baton, with Katie and Sadie cheering her on. Geoff and Bridgette, as usual, we're making out on a desk. As for Kyoko Kirigiri...she just sat at the back writing in her notebook. Two people were missing from his class, he knew that, but was iffy with the names.

After a few moments, Geoff opened one eye in the middle of his make-out session, before proudly declaring to his classmates...

"Hey everybody! We've got a new kid!"

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over at Ethan for a moment. Duncan let Harold out of his headlock and approached him, staring him down a few times. The sight of _the_ Duncan this close made Ethan sweat drop a bit...rather, a lot. If he were in an anime, his forehead wouldn't just be blue, it would be MIDNIGHT blue.

"So...how come you're here?"

"Uhh...anime...I'm the Ultimate Anime Fanatic..."

Although he only paused for five seconds, it felt like Duncan paused for an eternity. Eventually, he turned back round to Harold. "You hear that? You're perfect for each other!" A couple of people laughed along with it, with Harold giving a simple "gosh!" in response before retaking his desk.

"Come on man, I'm just kidding!" Duncan held a fist out to Ethan, which he hesitantly bashed against his own. Everyone then took their seats - Ethan decided to follow Harold and take the other seat next to him. It stressed the anime fan out considerately that Duncan was behind them - on the bright side, Geoff and DJ were there too, so there was a little bit of hope.

"Hey man," DJ tapped him on the shoulder. "Don't mind Duncan. I'm sure you'll be getting on okay in no time."

"Thanks DJ," Ethan smiled as Harold tapped him on the other shoulder.

"You're the Ultimate Anime Fanatic, huh? What's your favourite one?"

"What kind of a question is that? How can you make me choose?! But I guess if I absolutely had to..." His favourite anime character at the moment so far was Aikuro Mikisugi, so...

"Kill la Kill, I guess."

"Awesome. I imagine mine would have to be--"

A crash from outside caught the attention of the whole class. "What was that just now?" Both Ethan and Kyoko stood up and headed for the door.

* * *

 

"No way...Alejandro's in your class?! Lucky!"

"Lay off it Amy! He's my boyfriend now, in case you didn't notice."

"At least I'm still with Tyson-- uh, Tyler!"

"You're all super lucky to have boyfriends. Tess, Junko and I are all still single!"

"Who knows? You could end up with absolutely anyone. I mean, look at me and Sam!"

"Yeah...surely anyone of them can do better than th--" Amy stopped mid-sentence as something hit her hard in her back. "Ow! What the hell?!"

"Ah! My bad," Tomoko came sprinting up behind them, pulling back the trolley that had just ran into them. "This is what happens when you're stuck with the lowest possible budget from Chris."

She made a move to keep going, but was stopped when Junko grabbed her by her hood and spun her round, grabbing the front of her hoodie and staring at her directly in the face.

"Who are you?" The look on her face was simultaneously innocent and disturbing, but didn't exactly faze her much.

"Tomoko...Fukuhara..."

After a short moment, the model/analyst spoke again. "Fukuhara, hmm?" Her behaviour then suddenly changed to a more happy one. She dropped her and bent over with her hands on her hips, smiling sweetly. "Say, what talent do you have?"

Too confused to get away from this weirdo, Tomoko just plainly responded. "I'm the Ultimate Intern."

"Huh? Weird. You looked like you'd have something more to you than just that." Junko stepped backwards. "Maybe a brawler or something."

"You're an intern? One of Chris' unpaid workers?" Heather raised an eyebrow.

"So you'll know what I had to go through, right?!" Dakota grinned.

"What? Uh...yeah..."

"Okay! We've all met the dumb intern!" Amy barged forwards as the other girls slowly backed off. "More importantly, you ran that thing into me on purpose, you bitch!"

Tomoko put her hands up in surrender. "Hey, calm down! It was accidental, okay?"

"Yeah, Amy. She's kind of my--"

"I don't care who she is! She's gonna pay for that!"

"What is going on out here?" Kyoko suddenly appeared outside of her classroom, alongside Ethan.

Amy pointed an accusing finger at the intern who was just trying to avoid a fight, but seriously felt like one would start any minute. "This bitch pushed this thing into my back on _purpose!_ " With extreme over-emphasis on the "purpose".

"Please calm down. Is there really need to overreact to something like that?"

In the meantime, two people were walking up towards Class 3 in order to talk to Hajime, since one of them was particularly close to him. Unexpectedly, however, they ended up right in the middle of the word battle escalating between Amy and Tomoko.

"Come on," Heather moaned. "We don't have time for this." She and the other girls made a move to leave, and the cheerleader surprisingly agreed. However, she only ended up bumping into Fuyuhiko and Peko, who had just appeared from behind her.

"Get out of my way, Half Pint," Amy marched off. "This is a big people problem we have here."

"The f*** did you just say, bitch?!" Fuyuhiko (obviously Half Pint) turned red with anger.

Smirking, Amy turned back around to face him. "You heard what I said."

Muttering every curse word in existence (in both English and Japanese), he grabbed the shinai that Peko now had in her hand and made a sprint.

"Young master--" Peko tried to stop him, but he'd already lifted the shinai over his head. Amy successfully dodged and knee'd the yakuza in the stomach. The surprise was enough to make him drop the shinai. Ethan ran forwards to see if he was okay, but failed to notice the shinai on the floor. His foot slipped on the weapon and he fell to the floor, with his hand flailing wildly in the air until he finally hit the floor.

A rather long and awkward silence was to pass. The popular girls' mouths hung open. Kyoko's eyes widened minutely. Ethan felt his face heat up. Even Fuyuhiko was shocked.

Amy slowly and irritatedly looked down at Ethan's hand, which was now rested on her breast...an event that neither of them had planned. Ethan just nervously laughed and smiled. Nobody spoke for a long time.

"Score, dude!" Geoff called from the classroom, which nobody knew the door to which had been open the entire time.

 **"HANDS OFF MY BOOBS YOU PERV!"** Amy shoved him as hard as possible away from her, which sent him crashing into both the trolley and Tomoko. While the trolley rolled down the stairs, everything else happened too quickly.

* * *

 

Whilst all the bickering continued upstairs, the last three people had finally arrived at Drama Peak, but anyone who knew them wouldn't believe they were last...especially since they were with:

"You are fully aware I wanted to arrive early so I would be able to properly introduce myself to our new classmates!"

"Yeah. My bad, Kyoudai."

"It's no problem, Ishimaru-kun. We still have the whole day, right?"

Mondo, Kiyotaka and Chihiro began making their way through the corridors towards the staircase - they were on the same floor, but Kiyotaka was in a different class.

The trio stopped when they heard the shouting from above them.

"Um, what's happening up there?"

As they were about to check it out, a blue trolley with some tote bags resting on it came rolling down the stairs straight towards them. Mondo pulled Chihiro to the side, while Kiyotaka literally jumped out of the way, as to avoid it. They watched as it crashed into the back wall, but the bags were surprisingly unaffected.

"What in the world?" Kiyotaka picked the three bags up and handed them out to his friends, after noticing they had labels for all three of them. Around the same time, Peko's shinai rolled down the stairs.

"Hey, that's Pekoyama's, right?" Mondo picked it up and looked at it, as the yelling continued upstairs. One yell in particular was louder than the others, as were the numerous crashes that followed. Looking at the stairs, the three friends spotted one of their fellow students come tumbling in front of them, landing in quite an awkward position - although nowhere near as much as any that Mikan lands in.

"Are you okay?" Chihiro was the first to run over to her, but was closely followed by Kiyotaka.

"I'm fine, thanks," they sat up as more footsteps could be heard. Peko, Fuyuhiko, Kyoko and a highly flustered Ethan arrived on the other side of her.

"Are you sure...Fukuhara, was it?" Peko asked as she took her shinai off of Mondo, slipping it back into her sword bag. "You really shouldn't act so rashly next time, young master."

Fuyuhiko just sighed, muttering again under his breath, most likely to do with anger towards Amy.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Fukuhara-kun! My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru!" He bent into a deep bow before standing upright again and extending a hand, which Tomoko took (even though she was still on the floor). Kiyotaka pulled her back up onto her feet, but then eyed her up and down a few times. Tomoko noticed the look on his face - a look of disapproval - which made her feel a little uneasy.

"We should return to our classrooms," Kyoko spoke up. "Oowada-kun, Fujisaki-san, you're both in my class. Ishimaru-kun, you're in Fukuhara-san's class."

The three of them followed Kyoko upstairs, with Fuyuhiko and Peko going their own way, while Ethan - flushed a pale red - stared at the floor with a subtle smile. "Based on all that just happened, we should probably go somewhere else, okay?"

"..."

"Ethan?"

"..."

_...never mind..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another chapter I'm not really proud of - once again will try to edit it at a later date. Also, don't ask why I write some swear words and not others.


	6. The Ridonculous Announcement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first trailer for the Ridonculous Race hits screens, the first team signs up, and there's more drama between Chris and Byakuya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this one was a little bit of something to make my birthday weekend less cluttered. Being in exam year can make updating VERY difficult.

A whole two weeks had passed since the orientation day fiasco, and things had - on the most part - returned to normality. In this time, among all things to happen, Ian had realised what exactly Leon meant with Toko...the poor guy had been chased around the school twice by this "Genocider Syo" personality, and only stopped when they sneezed back at the classroom.

Other events included Leon persuading Ethan to join his non-existent band as a drummer, Sierra launching a blog just for school activities, and Cody having his gym clothes stolen by her during his first PE lesson.

Right now, the four newbies were sat in their sorry excuse for a house, which had been 'graciously' provided by Chris. It sure was a far cry from Tess and Ian's old home in Los Angeles, Ethan's old place in New York was merely better than this, and Tomoko could live just about anywhere if she wanted to.

An icy cold draught filled the entire house, which was mainly to do with the fact that the windows were broken, and the curtains had had to be repeatedly patched up with random scrap materials. In the lounge, there was an age old TV with limited channels (that took five minutes to actually find), and a sofa with all its springs poking out of one end. Not to mention the fluff that had already come out of it. All the kitchen had was a broken microwave that required three times the recommended cooking time, and a minuscule fridge that thankfully came with some food already. There was only one bathroom, and the tub was half the size of an average human being.

One of the bedrooms bore a resemblance to a Camp Wawanakwa cabin, with a creaky and poorly put together bunk bed. The other had two futons in a similar condition to the curtains. Both rooms had a single desk, a wardrobe, a bin and what Tomoko recognised as a "Trunk of Mind Blowing Secrets" from Total Drama Action. "Welcome to the world of Total Drama," she'd told them all on the first day.

Tess was lying on the sofa, trying to watch one of Sayaka's music videos with the crappy wifi connection. Ethan sat on the edge of the sofa, also engrossed in his phone. Ian lay on the floor, working through a piece of pointless homework, while Tomoko was looking through whatever she could find in the kitchen.

"This is stupid," Tess whined. "I thought this was going to have standards, being by the same people who made the country's greatest reality show."

"Have you even _seen_ the show?"

"Yeah but still..."

Tomoko came back in carrying four bowls, which had next to nothing inside it from where everyone else saw it. Ian looked inside his as Tomoko set it on the floor, sitting on what looked like an old seat from the Total Drama plane. "What is this?"

"All we have left is four tubs of ramen. Therefore, until we go out shopping, that's all you're getting for a while."

"So basically, our life has turned into _Baka and Test_ ," Ethan picked up a piece of ramen.

"What about tests?"

"It's an anime. The main protagonist, Akihisa Yoshii, was broke for most of the series, so in one of the episodes, he had a half of a half of a half of a half of a half of a half of a tub of ramen for lunch. Put simply, 1/64 of a tub."

"Well because we have four tubs still, there's 1/32 in each bowl. Good luck, Hollywood Twins." That was Tomoko's collective name for her superficial 'new relatives'. She smirked at them.

"On the bright side I can kickstart my diet...well, as long as the TV works..." Tess scooped the remote up off the floor and switched it on. Only static replaced the previously black screen. "Perfect."

"What were you expecting in a place like this - cinematic?"

The vlogger ignored Ethan as she kept pressing random buttons. The display went black again, before more static suddenly filled the screen again, while Ian continually tried repositioning the antenna.

"Come on, you fricking TV. WORK!" Tess got up and gave it a firm kick in the side.

"You know, kicking and swearing isn't going to--"

_"Hello, North America!"_

Ethan was proven wrong when the display suddenly changed once more. The large crack in the screen distorted the picture, but it was still clear enough. In the centre was a man who looked in his mid or late thirties. They wore a white shirt, khaki jacket, blue trousers, and had brown hair.

_"Coming in 2015, the greatest reality show of all time! 18 teams will take part in a frantic race around the world, for the chance to win the ultimate prize. One. Million. Dollars! Players will be pushed to their limits, competing in brutal challenges, and baffling local customs as they race to the ultimate Finish Line!"_

The display on screen changed to 18 boxes, with two silhouettes in each one. _"I'm your host, Don. And you could be one of the players competing to win!"_ Don popped up on screen again, and a phone number and website appeared along the bottom. _"If you see yourself and a teammate winning, send your details to us through the website..."_

"Sounds interesting."

_"...and those wishing to apply for a job, call the number below! We'll see you soon on...the Ridonculous Race!"_

Almost as if it had been timed, the TV returned to static before turning off completely. Ethan suddenly jumped on top of his sister. "Tomoko! You should apply for a job interning! You need to live up to your title!"

"I was thinking that, too." She retrieved her own phone and began looking for her messaging apps. "Noah and Owen might be interested."

"You gonna try and message them? Why not wait until Monday?"

"These kinds of shows get popular faster than you'd expect." After finally finding the right app, she started looking for the right contacts.

* * *

 

"Owen, that's the third one you've had in the past ten minutes." Noah sat back on the sofa he'd been forced to share with Owen, Izzy and Eva, reading a book. The two girls were engaging in a pretty violent video game, while Owen stuffed his face with a pack of cakes.

"Oh yeah! Die zombies!" Izzy planted an explosive of some sort somewhere in the game and ran off as it detonated. "BOOM BOOM!"

"Izzy, calm down. It's just a dumb video game."

Owen's phone began vibrating on the edge of the sofa, which Noah snatched up. He read off the message that had come through, before shouting to his buddy.

"Hey Owen. How would you feel about competing to win another million dollars? It's a race around the world, hosted by some guy named Don."

"Oh yeah! Count me in!"

"Well, as long as there's no singing in this one, I'll sign us up."

"Hey Noah! Big-O! Wanna join in the next round?"

"Sure thing Iz!"

"I have a job to do first," Noah plugged in his laptop, which had been stashed under the sofa. He found the Ridonculous Race website and found the application tab, then started filling out his and Owen's details. Until he found the box that said 'team name'. "Any ideas for a team name?"

"Ooh! Let's go with one that matches our titles...how about the Reality TV Pros?"

"Good enough," was Noah's blank reply as he finished the form and emailed it off.

"Noah! Big-O! These zombies won't be killing themselves!"

"I don't wanna put up with Izzy's craziness for yet another round."

"Fine."

"Okay!"

Noah and Owen plugged in two more controllers, as the screen's display switched from the main menu to a field crawling with weird zombie things.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, towards the outskirts of the town, Chris was stood impatiently with Chef, tapping his foot and checking his watch. He still had no idea why Byakuya had wanted to speak with him in private. First guess was that he was trying to avoid Toko for a while. Whatever the reason, Byakuya arrived not long after Chris had the thought.

"What was the problem, Byaku--"

"Are you out of your mind? I approved of the idea to bring your contestants into this, but I **never** said you could turn it into a hidden camera show." The seriousness in the man's voice was frightening, even for Chef. "I knew it was a bad idea to leave you in charge! 20 people were killed in life-or-death games, we manage to revive them all, and what do you do? Broadcast them to the entire country!"

"So? What's the problem with it? Other than being mildly insensitive."

"Even though Junko Enoshima has been cleansed of despair, there could still be followers somewhere watching the show. After she died, her name was more revered than ever before!"

"But she's not dead!"

"Still, it could endanger the lot of them if the wrong person were to see this."

"You're just overreacting--"

"AM I?!" This was a whole new Byakuya Togami than the one they'd known before. "Do you remember what the Remnants of Despair did? They took the blame for Kazuo Tengan after the Final Killing Game, so as far as the survivors and the rest of Future Foundation are concerned, they caused it. And since you really can't be bothered to remember that, don't be surprised if the rest of the Foundation come knocking."

Chris just sighed. "Listen, I don't get why you're suddenly so mad, but I'm the host of this show. I know what I'm doing - the problem's already been solved!"

"Whatever. I have better things to do than stand here and listen to your sorry excuses," Byakuya pushed his glasses back up his nose and made a move to leave, before stopping and turning back around.

"Ah, right. It's also very hard to believe that intern of yours is in any way related to...those two."

"Yeah. I checked the blogs and everyone else thought the same thing."

"Hmm. Well then," this time, the heir left for real. Chef turned to Chris the moment he'd vanished from their sight.

"Mind explainin' how you convinced them to come onto this show?"

The host only laughed. "All in good time, Chef..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next one is probably going to be one of those IM or Skype chat fillers, since I lack inspiration.


	7. Class 3's Rocking Chat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I lack the inspiration so enjoy this totally pointless and nonsensical Skype chat filler chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changed my mind and decided to post during my birthday weekend - I want to finish the whole thing ASAP

**Skype Chat: CLASS 3'S ROCKING CHAT (black.cherry5, donutgirl33, heyheyitschiaki, CreamSouda, rotten_orange7, BigO, SupremeOverlordGundamTanaka, ikissedaguy)**

-

**_black.cherry5 has added Kaleidoscope to this conversation._ **

**black.cherry5:** HELLO IZZY-CHAN!!

 **Kaleidoscope** : HELLO IBUKI-CHAN!!

 **ikissedaguy:** like two peas in a pod

 **heyheyitschiaki:** where's the rest of the class?

 **donutgirl33:** most of them haven't found out about this feature yet - should I go tell everyone?

 **rotten_orange7:** This conversation would be much more pleasant if we had everyone

 **heyheyitschiaki:** I'll go get hinata-kun

 **BigO:** we still need Leshawna, and Tomoko and everyone too

 **Kaleidoscope:** FINALLY OWEN I WAS WAITING FOREVER!

 **ikissedaguy:** you're in the exact same room

 **ikissedaguy:** and you were still waiting for him to start messaging y

**_heyheyitschiaki has added Hajimeme to this conversation._ **

**Hajimeme:** hey everyone

 **black.cherry5:** OMG ibuki's been dying to talk to hajime-chan! Why must you kill ibuki in this way?!

**_BigO has added SassAndCumquats to this conversation._ **

**_black.cherry5 has added HopeEgg to this conversation._ **

**SassAndCumquats:** what's up y'all?

 **HopeEgg:** have I missed anything so far?

 **ikissedaguy:** not really

 **Hajimeme:** by the way who r u

 **rotten_orange7:** I think it may be Noah

 **CreamSouda:** wtf with that username?!

 **ikissedaguy:** izzy set the password and refuses to give it

 **Kaleidoscope:** XD suck it Nono XD

**_donutgirl33 has added rotten_orange to this conversation._ **

**SupremeOverlordGundamTanaka:** I believe that the fortuitous one is already a member of this gathering

 **rotten_orange:** it's tsumiki not komaeda-san

 **rotten_orange7:** hold on let me change my name to make things easier

 **SassAndCumquats:** where'd the name come from anyhow?

**_rotten_orange7 changed their username to bagel_kun7._ **

**bagel_kun7:** there this is better

 **HopeEgg:** so who's still missing?

 **donutgirl33:** sakura-chan is at training and ishimaru is doing homework

 **CreamSouda:** have any teachers even _set_ homework?

**_Kaleidoscope has added AniMoko to this conversation._ **

**Hajimeme:** I don't think so...

 **AniMoko:** I assume I haven't missed anything major?

 **ikissedaguy:** you catch on fast

 **AniMoko:** hello Noah

 **black.cherry5:** HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY OMFG U REALLY ARE PSYCHIC!!!

 **heyheyitschiaki:** calm down Mioda-san

 **CreamSouda:** ...I have nothing to say about that

 **Hajimeme:** I think it was sort of obvious since she's worked on the show already

 **HopeEgg:** getting back onto the subject, why did we start this chat anyway

 **black.cherry5:** chiaki-chan please explain!

 **heyheyitschiaki:** I thought maybe we could all do something together now we're classmates. Maybe take a walk down to the beach or something

 **bagel_kun7:** that's a splendid idea!

 **BigO:** when shall we do this it sounds fun?

 **HopeEgg:** how about tomorrow?

 **donutgirl33:** yeah! I'll tell ishimaru and sakura-chan

 **SassAndCumquats:** I'm down with that

 **SupremeOverlordGundamTanaka:** Agreed. Let us partake of this ritual of camaraderie come sunset

 **AniMoko:** looking forward to it!

 **donutgirl33:** they both agreed - it was harder to convince ishimaru but he caved eventually

 **Hajimeme:** sweet I'll see u all tomorrow

 **black.cherry5:** awesome! C u tomoz :-D

 **ikissedaguy:** izzy just give me that stupid password already

 **Kaleidoscope:** sorry no can do - it's the truth anyway isn't it? Right~~

 **ikissedaguy:** I'm leaving this conversation now

 **Kaleidoscope** so you can go suck Cody's dhlqbsk62946?/2-!9'lmkqn@!/ &?.&hskbeoca


	8. FILLER: TDAc's Blog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A blog entry from Sierra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had no ideas for a new chapter, so I thought..."why not?".

DRAMA PEAK ACADEMY – a first-class look in

_Posted on October 16 th at 12:49pm  
By MrsSierraCody_

 

_Hello my wonderful followers!_

_As I mentioned last month, I am now a part of Chris’ latest project, which as it turns out is a high school based on a Japanese elite school known as Hope’s Peak Academy. I’m here with all my Total Drama friends, some of the old students, and four newcomers. Unfortunately, I don’t have an awful lot for you right now, but there are a couple of facts I’d like to make you aware of about some of them._

**_トータルドラーマー_**   
_You may not be aware of this, but there was supposed to be a Japanese edition of Total Drama, which was cancelled due to a lack of applications. However, one of the people from the school, Nagito Komaeda, applied for it. Being the Ultimate Lucky Student for his old class, he says he would have counted on his EXTREME good luck to win the two million yen (that’s what he says the prize money would have been). And believe me, I'd bet that he would have been the winner!_

**_ RESERVE COURSE   
_ ** _Hajime Hinata was originally a member of the Reserve Course department at Hope’s Peak, which was liable for a great deal of controversy. However, the school eventually acknowledged the amount of talent that he really had, and accepted him into the main course as the Ultimate Hope…BTW, don’t ask about what that talent means._

_Yes, I understand that only having this much info is disappointing for my level of blogging skill, but I’ll be sure to keep you updated on what’s going on. Oh yeah, Amy and Sammy also had a major war in the cafeteria that is still being cleaned up. On that note, if anyone would like to donate some money to help fix the windows and buy a new table, please go to this website. (Credit to Chihiro for making the page)_

_Apologies for such a criminally short entry, but I swear on Cody’s life that the next one will be longer! I’ll see you next time!_


	9. Siblings and Scoops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomoko and Ethan have a brother-sister talk, and Izzy helps Sierra with her research into the new kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't think I mentioned this, but I changed the way I refer to TJ to her actual name of Tomoko, mainly because of DJ.

"Agh, why does it have to be raining now?" Other than probably six others, Ethan and Tomoko were the last two out of the school, and as just mentioned by the anime nerd, it was raining rather heavily. A couple of days had passed since Tomoko's incident, and it had been forgotten at most. On the upside, it was something to laugh about now. And so as they walked home from another day of 'school' - Tomoko under a purple umbrella and Ethan without one - it was a chance for the two to have a normal brother-sister conversation. Well, normal is subjective.

"It's your own fault for convincing me to stay behind with you. If it weren't for that, maybe you'd be able to get home dry. Why do you even want to practice the drums so much now?"

"It's Leon's band. Ian's the bass player in it now, and...well...I dunno, it just felt like something fun to do. It isn't even a real school in a sense!"

"You've got that right," Tomoko sighed. "Speaking of, what's it been like for you?"

"Well..."

* * *

 

_"GYYAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!"_

_""Give me back my knife!"_

_""For the last time I-- OOH!"_

...

_""CLEARLY YOU'RE LYING BECAUSE IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR A PERSON TO SUCCESSFULLY CATCH UP WITH AN ANIME LIKE NARUTO OR ONE PIECE SINCE EACH ONE IS OVER A THOUSAND EPISODES LONG AND THE MOMENT YOU THINK YOU'VE CAUGHT UP A WHOLE BUCH OF NEW EPISODES ARE OUT AND FURTHERMORE..."_

...

_""Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"_

* * *

 

"Oh you know, the usual."

"Uhh...right."

"Ah! Something I've been curious about for a long time...why did you end up moving to Canada?"

Tomoko glanced at the floor while still walking, presumably not exactly over-struck on talking about it. Regardless, she did. "Well, you know about my...our parents being pretty high maintenance, right. He's a hotel CEO and she's a top class chef, so naturally I spent a lot of time alone."

"Which is how you got so good at the household stuff."

"Yeah. So when I reached the age where I could start living alone, I thought that I don't need to put up with it any longer and moved in with my homestay partner. Then I got a job and here I am."

"I see. I didn't know you were like a young Rin Matsuoka."

"Shut it with the anime references already. Why do you always feel the need to compare people to different anime characters? How many people have you even done that for?!"

"But overall you're like a feminine version of Gray," Ethan continued without showing any sign of listening. "No doubt."

"At least I don't run around in only my boxers. Seriously, how am I like Gray? And don't say because I'm flat-chested!"

"I wasn't! It's because you have a cool personality, you don't show many extreme emotions often, and remember that snowballing day we had five years ago? Around the time the manga was released? You chucked one at someone on the other team, and I swear you yelled _"Ice Make: Cannonball"!"_

Tomoko couldn't help but laugh a little at this. "Yes, I remember."

"Nothing like that with my parents..." Although they were twins biologically, Ethan considered their biological aunt and uncle his real parents, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to meet the real ones again. "We're almost there. What do you think Hollywood #1 and #2 are up to right now?"

"Who can tell with them...question. Do you think they're actually related to us in any way possible?"

Ethan just shrugged as they reached their pathetic excuse for a house. Once again, Tess was on the phone with Sayaka, while Ian flicked through the TV channels aimlessly - the Kardashians, the news, so on. "Don't mention it to them," he whispered. "It won't be fun if anyone-- HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!"

Tomoko held back another laugh as Ethan pushed Tess off the sofa and leaned as far towards the television as humanly possible. The reason for this? Attack on Titan was on (surprisingly).

"Tch. Nerd."

* * *

 

"Hmmmm...hmmmm....hmmmm...ah! There we go!"

At Sierra's residence, she was sat in her room, simultaneously updating her blogs and researching the new Ridonculous Race show. Being in favour of observing and blogging about the Total Drama series and its spinoffs, she had no interest in signing up. Besides, they could end up having to sing again, and Cody said he was busy. Ah, well.

So far, she'd only seen a few of the same people hinted at over the Internet: a pair of old tennis players from a couple decades ago, two famous fashion bloggers from that channel, _Now Trending With Tom and Jen_ , and even that figure skating duo who lost the gold at the Olympics. Talk about an all star cast!

"SIERRRAAAAA! HEY SIIIEEERRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAA!"

"Come in Izzy!"

The door flew open a little harder than expected, almost knocking over one of Sierra's pictures of Cody. "I have a huge scoop you won't believe! You're keeping the blog going, right?"

"Like, duh..."

"So get this! First of all, there's a rumour that Sakura in my class may have had a boyfriend, but PLEASE don't post it online or lest she break Izzy's body in two!"

"Okay..." Sierra paused to scribble it down. "What else?"

"Ian in Class 1 told me that Tess has THIS tattoo on her back," Izzy whipped a photo out of the front of her top and showed it to Sierra.

"Ooh hoo! That is SO going onto the blog! Got anything else?"

"I saw Noah and Owen sign up for that new race show a couple of weeks ago! Do you know about--"

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!! Thank you Izzy!! I've been trying to research this for ages!!" Sierra instantly began punching random letters onto her laptop. Izzy peered over her shoulder to check what she was writing: **RIDONCULOUS RACE - WHO TO EXPECT**. So far, she'd managed to speed type the stuff about the tennis players and was halfway through Tom and Jen.

"Wow! How did you do that so quickly?"

"Years of practice," Sierra kept on typing and glancing down to her notepad. "But if you're going to keep finding information about everyone, there's only one person I want to find out something about."

"Tomoko? You got it! Although good luck with that. She's been sort of quiet lately."

"Don't worry. I have faith. And..." Sierra pulled out an address book, "I have backup plans..."


	10. A Look at Class 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second pointless Skype filler chapter, only this time with Ethan's class, who seem to struggle guessing the origin of his screenname.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only being included because I have no ideas, and have to start getting ready for exams.  
> WARNING: minor spoilers for Kill la Kill

**Skype chat: Class 5 Group Chat (KyokoKirigiri, surfergirl10, Sadiesbfffl, Katiesbfffl, Doris, SplendidNakedOfficer, crazydiamond, AlterEgoFujsaki, PARTYANIMAL, BunnyBoyDJ, icanseethefuture, Avril Lavigne, HellaBossPrincess)**

-

 **KyokoKirigiri:** After everybody asking so much, I created a group chat for you all

 **HellaBossPrincess:** You have my gratitude, Kirigiri-san! :-D

 **surfergirl10:** if every other class have started one, why shouldn't we?

 **HellaBossPrincess:** Exactly, Bridgette-san!

 **surfergirl10:** but some people aren't part of it yet...and wait Sonia why do you have "hella boss" in your screenname?

 **HellaBossPrincess:** Isn't that what Western people say?

 **KyokoKirigiri:** I'll try and find the other three.

 **surfergirl10:**...umm

 **icanseethefuture:** I think sonia-chii was listening to saionji-chii again

 **Avril Lavigne:** no she's been doing that since our

 **Avril Lavigne:** school trip

 **PARTYANIMAL:** what kinda trip was it?? spill

 **HellaBossPrincess:** Oh...well it was a long time ago

 **KyokoKirigiri:** It was a beach trip. They watched fireworks one night, had a baking day, and Mioda-san in Class 3 performed for them. They told my class about it.

 **PARTYANIMAL:** sounds awesome!

 **BunnyBoyDJ:** There's a beach nearby so we should try doing that at some point

 **PARTYANIMAL** : we'll be the first class to do that!

**HellaBossPrincess** **has logged off.**

**Doris:** Too bad, but Class 3 have already done one

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** but still we should give it a try

 **PARTYANIMAL:** DARN IT!!

 **icanseethefuture:** by the way, who are you two? Doris-chii and SplendidNakedOfficer-chii

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** why it's Ethan of course!!

**HellaBossPrincess has logged on.**

**crazydiamond:** wtf is that username

 **AlterEgoFujisaki:** It's an anime reference, isn't it?

 **icanseethefuture:** was it a hentai?????

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** EWWW WTF HAGAKURE NO!!

 **HellaBossPrincess:** And Doris is...?

 **Doris:** Harold

 **PARTYANIMAL:** wait let me guess

 **Doris:** ...Duncan set my screenname and refuses to tell me the password

 **surfergirl10:** of course :-/

 **Katiesbfffl:** what's happening here?

 **Sadiesbfffl:** awwww sadie thanks! :-)

 **Katiesbfffl:** your welcome but your name is cuter though :-)

 **KyokoKirigiri:** They're trying to guess which anime Ethan-san's screenname came from

 **surfergirl10:** not that we really know any

 **Sadiesbfffl:** ooh ooh ooh is it pokemon!!

 **AlterEgoFujisaki:** That's the only one you know I'm guessing? And I don't know a lot either but...Attack on Titan?

 **crazydiamond:** boku no pico

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** no, no and I just said no oowada

 **HellaBossPrincess:** I have often heard of this Boku no Pico! Perhaps I should watch it...

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO

 **PARTYANIMAL:** i only heard stuff about it but NO SONIA DUDE YOU'RE STILL TOO INNOCENT

 **Avril Lavigne:** you would be surprised

**KyokoKirigiri has added Staci, hotinhairspray, and DerSchnitzelKicker to this chat.**

**Staci:** yeah my great-grandfather lived in Japan and he invented anime.

 **BunnyBoyDJ:** no offence Staci but that never happened

 **hotinhairspray:** i can't be bothered to take part in this

 **DerSchnitzelKicker:** Naruto. There i said it

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** no

 **icanseethefuture:** WAIT!

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** yeah

 **icanseethefuture:** could it be...

 **SplendidNakedOfficer** : yes...

 **icanseethefuture** : ...it comes from...

 **Katiesbfffl** : tension!

 **icanseethefuture** : Cory in the House

**SplendidNakedOfficer has left the chat.**

**BunnyBoyDJ has added SplendidNakedOfficer to the chat.**

**SplendidNakedOfficer:** ARE YOU SERIOUS THAT MEME DIED A LONG TIME AGO HAGAKURE AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A PSYCHIC?!?!?!?

 **icanseethefuture:** 30% accuracy!

 **Doris:** Are you finished guessing yet?

 **Doris:** it's from Kill la Kill

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** THANK YOU HAROLD YOU ARE MY SAVIOUR

 **hotinhairspray:** um what

 **PARTYANIMAL:** sounds like a cool watch

**KyokoKirigiri has added Batontwirler79 to this chat.**

**SplendidNakedOfficer:** it's my favourite anime...[here's where the name comes from](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rYblvSwTQs)...

 **KyokoKirigiri:** ...

 **DerSchnitzelKicker:** well that just happened

 **surfergirl10:** what goes on in that boys head sometimes

 **Avril Lavigne:** i wonder if anyone in real life has luminous purple nipples like him

 **Doris:** awesome

 **Sadiesbfffl:** I feel so sorry for that kid in the video

 **PARTYANIMAL:** that's random even by my standards

 **HellaBossPrincess:** Why was he speaking in English?

 **BunnyBoyDJ:** we can think about that later

 **KyokoKirigiri:** DJ is right. We should be getting to school now.

 **AlterEgoFujisaki:** I'll see you all there :->

 **SplendidNakedOfficer:** COME ON! NAKED SHOOTING STAR!

 **crazydiamond:** stop it

-

**Batontwirler79 has added MrsSierraCody to this chat.**

**Batontwirler79:** alright sierra what did you want that involved nobody else noticing?

 **MrsSierraCody:** never mind there isn't any kind of juicy information in here

 **MrsSierraCody:** only what his favourite anime is. Oh well, there's still a whole day to get through

**MrsSierraCody has left the chat.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all you good little boys and girls reading this fanfiction: LISTEN TO GEOFF & ETHAN AND DO NOT WATCH BOKU NO PICO  
> I've not seen it, but I know what it's about, and I NEVER INTEND TO WATCH IT.


	11. Ultimate Stalker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the tag suggests, Sierra being Sierra. Includes a Class 1 gym session, another one of Chiaki's gaming sessions, and planning for Junko's birthday. But still nothing of Class 4.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right now, I'm trying to stop writing and posting these chapters immediately, so hopefully it should take less time for updates between chapters (for anyone actually following this thing). No promising they'll be any better, but at least I'm trying.

Monday 24th November. It had been nearly three months since they began at this school, and Sierra had highly limited detail on the four newbies: Ethan’s favourite anime is Kill la Kill, and Tess has a weird tattoo on her back. That’s it.

The biggest Total Drama fan, and the Ultimate Blogger, only had **THAT**.

It looked like she was going to have to step up her game. It wasn’t a real school, so she could move between the classes more easily, and she’d managed to steal some sort of audio recording device from B’s locker (plenty of lock-picking practice from stealing Cody’s underwear), so that could come in useful.

For the rest of the week, she would find out as much as she could about them, or her name wasn’t Sierra Anderson…well, in a few years it would be.

* * *

 

**24/11/14 – Class 1 Gym**

The likes of Akane, Mukuro, Peko, Fuyuhiko and Brick were running laps around their class in the field round the back of the school (which to tell the truth was the most pleasant appearing part of the whole school). The Imposter, Mike, Zoey, Courtney and Gwen were still quite far ahead; Scarlett, Hifumi and Cameron trailed at the back, with Hifumi far more exhausted than the other two. Toko was too distracted with watching Byakuya, who was on the phone with somebody, and Nekomaru was on the side with a megaphone, pushing his fellow students – as expected of the Ultimate Team Manager. That left only Ian, Leon and Celestia.

“Owari-san appears to be finished her fifth lap now,” Celes pointed towards the cloud of dust emerging from the back of the field.

“Didn’t she only start two minutes ago?”

“I’m gonna show I can beat her this time around! Come on Ian, back me up!” Leon got into position, grinning at his friend as Akane rounded the corner.

“I’m fine. Maybe for the next one,” Ian gestured for him to go ahead, which left him alone on the grass verge with the gambler as Akane and Leon yelled incomprehensible taunts at one another.

“I wonder, why aren’t you participating with our classmates?”

“I should be asking you the same thing.”

“But _I_ am the one who was asking _you_ , is that not correct?”

Ian just scratched the back of his head anxiously. “I guess I’m just not that athletic, and it’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Well, I would not be so ashamed if I were you.” Both of them looked over at Hifumi, who hadn’t even finished half of one lap yet. They were called back to Akane and Leon, who had managed to quickly complete another lap, and Nekomaru yelling at them.

“Ian! Celes! Stop slacking and start training! And you,” he pointed to the far corner. “You aren’t in this class!”

Spinning round, all the duo saw was a long wisp of purple hair going back into the school building.

 

**25/11/14 – lunchtime**

Once more, it was Teruteru’s day preparing the food in the canteen. Ethan was just by the trays, and one of the first people in. Obviously, Owen was there before anybody had even left their classrooms.

“Meh, cooking may be his talent, but it probably can’t beat DJ’s sandwiches,” Duncan dropped a tray onto the service window, and Teruteru dropped a bowl of nikujaga onto it, as Geoff took his place.

“Come on man, at least give it a try,” the same happened with Geoff, and then DJ, who followed Duncan to the table closest to the window. As Ethan got there, however, it took quite a bit longer.

“I’m feeling hungrier today…got anything to go with it?”

“Hmm…there’s some instant ramen going for when we run out of _queue du boeuf_. Thoughts?”

“Serve it up, Hanamura!” Ethan held out another bowl, which was immediately loaded with instant ramen. "Also for a topping…nori, tamago, and menma with shio soup.” As it was served up, Ethan gave his classmate the thumbs-up and joined the other boys at the table. Sierra was next in the line.

“Nothing extra, but can you point out what Ethan just had?”

 

**26/11/14 – Class 2’s homeroom**

“Soooo~…my birthday’s comin’ up and I need some ideas for what I’m gonna do!”

Anyone who was in Junko Enoshima’s circle of friends would only be hearing her requests to her classmates for birthday celebration ideas…for everybody else it was unbelievably annoying.

“Why not just meet up with some friends and chill out at home or something?”

“That would be too boring. Besides, my big sis would be there and would bring the atmosphere down?”

“Wouldn’t she want to do anything for her birthday?”

“You don’t know my sister,” Junko huffed and leaned over on her desk. “Any others?”

Sayaka was next. “Why not do something with everybody--”

“NO!” Amy, surprisingly, was the one to butt in. “It would ruin _everything_ if Spare-amy was invited. Trust me, and take it from the two of us – having a twin will taint everything!”

“Uhh…alright then.”

“Tell me about it.”

The girls sat there in silence for a few more moments, before Tess smiled. “I remember something I did for one of my parties back in LA, and it just might work out!”

…

From the opposite end of the classroom, Topher and Scott could loudly hear the girls laughing, but about what, no clue. All they could infer was that “Heather” was craving some “candy”, and that Junko’s party would be “big fun”. Regardless, it was getting annoying.

“Topher.” Scott looked like he was losing the will to live. “You’re popular-ish. Go and tell them to shut up.” A tap against the window turned the two boys’ attention away from them. It was the unmistakeable figure of Sierra, holding a notebook and a pen, scribbling frantically. It was then that Topher spotted the small electronic bug on the girls’ desk. As Topher went to grab it, Scott went to the window.

“Sierra? What are you doing?”

The look on her face was priceless. “Uhh…just, uh…washing the window?”

“Nice try.”

 

**27/11/14 – Class 3’s Gaming Tournament**

“Oh yeah! Get ‘em, Chiaki-chan!”

Currently, Chiaki was engaging in a round of Mario Kart against Noah, Makoto and Hajime, and was obviously winning. Hajime was only just ahead of Noah, and Makoto wasn’t even on the same lap as the other three.

“That’s another win for me,” Chiaki dropped the controller as Mario crossed the finish. “Mioda-san, you take my spot. It’s your birthday, after all.”

Reaching for one of the celebratory donuts that Hina had been requested to buy, Ibuki knelt down on the pillow as she watched Hajime beating Noah by a hair, the two of them swapping with Kiyotaka (reluctantly in his case) and Owen. In the meantime, Makoto had only just started lap three.

“Chiaki-chan rules! Come on, Makoto-chan! You got this!”

With a lot of encouragement from his classmates, after a couple more minutes, Makoto ended up finishing the game. It was just a surprise the game hadn’t finished itself during this time. As Makoto was ironically applauded, he handed the controller to Tomoko.

“Although it’s your birthday, I won’t be going easy on you, Mioda-san,” she smirked. “I’m pretty good at this game.”

“Actually,” Owen held up a different game, “I asked if we could move on to this one at the beginning.”

“He’s right. Besides, it’ll be easier for Ishimaru-kun.”

“I still don’t think playing video games in the middle of a school day is a very good idea.”

Izzy leaned over from the desk with the donuts on it. “Come on Taka! We need to loosen up every once in a while! Ooh, ooh! Do Board Game Island!”

“Oh yeah! I’m a master at this one! And most of the other ones on this disc,” Tomoko leaned forward in anticipation.

“Good to hear, because I won’t accept a loss from you, Moki!” As Izzy said this, she smiled as she spotted Sierra on the other side of the door, giving her the thumbs up.

 

**28/11/14 – a supermarket close to the city**

Due to the condition of the town the teens were being forced to live in, the nearest supermarket was a 15-minute drive away. And since not everybody could drive, a few people had to go on errand shopping trips for their friends. Tess was one of the few people who was able to drive, and was therefore the person in charge of buying Sayaka and co.’s groceries. So what better time to help a friend than during the family trip. After all, she’d just had payment from one of her sponsors, and was getting tired of sharing a tub of instant ramen.

“Okay…so Sayaka’s asked for only the basic stuff, like fruit. Ian, can you go and get some?” The Fukuhara twins couldn’t help noticing how she just leaned back against the trolley on her phone as she said this, and how the boy just went and _did_ it without question…when the items in question were literally in the next aisle! “Can you two keep going? I’ve got a call from my manager?” She ended up sprinting out of the store without waiting for an answer, shoving the list into Ethan’s hands in the process.

“She’s a _YouTuber_ and she has a _sponsor_?”

“Guess she really is the Ultimate YouTube Sensation.” _Although it isn’t even real._

“Well whatever it is, it must be big news.”

 ...

Meanwhile, Sierra, for once, had stopped stalking the newbies, and was instead on the phone to Izzy.

“Why not keep going? There’s still so much more you could end up learning about them!”

“I know, but I think I have enough information. Besides, I think they might be onto me…huh?”

Sierra stopped her conversation as she noticed Tess run outside to take a phone call, and then felt the small audio recorder that was still in her pocket. Well, when life gives you lemons...

~~~

 _“Hello? Oh, I had a feeling it would be you…yeah, yeah…don’t worry. I’m still doing my job…wait, are you serious? She actually wants to meet up with me?! That’s amazing! So when will she be…oh…I have to go_ there _…”_

Sierra cursed that there was no pause button on this thing, as she had to face hand cramps worse than what she’d experienced before, while the replay of the earlier conversation seemed to get quicker on both ends.

_“A whole year? But what about the school, and Sayaka, and Junko and…I understand…if it’s for my job, then I guess there’s no choice…okay, I’ll see you then.”_

~~~

 “Oh, you sure took your sweet time out there! What did your manager want?”

“I’m supposed to be meeting with someone in LA to help boost my credibility.”

“But you’re a net star,” Ethan commented, while Tomoko and Ian wandered down the Christmas themed aisle. “Don’t you already have plenty of it?”

Tess sighed and twirled a strand of hair between her fingers. “I don’t know the details yet, but it’s with the person who got me into music and blogging in the first place.”

“Right then. And did you end up getting those tickets for that stage play you wouldn’t stop talking about for the last two days?”

She frowned. “The last ever show was in July.” Her saddened look suddenly went 180, as a memory came back to her. “Fortunately, I have the next best thing to that!"


	12. Counting Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The former Despair Sisters make further plans for their birthday, Chris begins to worry about the Ridonculous Race's popularity, and Class 4 finally gets the smallest amount of screen time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just say to anyone bothering to read this, I'm seriously half-assing nearly all of these chapters and have no clue how to properly write most of these characters, since this is my first fanfiction. However, I will try and put more time into the later and more-relevant-to-the-story chapters. Furthermore, I felt the need to include Heathers somewhere in this fanfic, and will also sneak in OST names into some of the titles. That is all.

“Oh my God! The official stage play on DVD? Recorded on the night you went to watch it?!”

“It may not be as good as seeing it live, but still fun. Have any of you even seen it before?”

“Only the movie version,” Dakota said, with Amy nodding in agreement. “But Lindsay knows a few of the songs from the musical.”

“Candy Store is definitely my favourite one! Even Heather says it’s her favourite!”

“What? No I don’t.”

“Well, we’ll see when we get to Junko’s…” Tess smiled at her friends. Heather and Lindsay had met up with them outside the school, due to the classes. “Oh! Here she is now!”

As Junko skipped over to the six girls, her older twin headed straight into the main building. A couple of girls noticed the pastel pink cards in her hands, each one with one of their names on.

“Hi girls! You’re all invited to my birthday sleepover on the 23rd December!” She narrated the writing on the invitations. “And thanks for the idea! You actually have the Broadway musical on DVD?”

“That’s right! But wait, why on the 23rd?”

“I wouldn’t want you to miss out on Christmas with your families. I’m not _that_ cruel, am I~?”

“I guess you have a point. Now we should probably get to class.”

“I’ll see you at lunch, you guys,” Heather and Lindsay went ahead to their classroom, not being able to hear the words being spoken behind them.

_“And with that, two of the seven most popular girls at Drama Peak Academy made their way to homeroom. The remaining five, meanwhile, were finding it difficult to contain their excitement for the birthday party of the Ultimate Analyst and Model.”_

“Uhh…Enoshima-chan?”

“I’m trying narration, since it’s something I used to do to entertain myself at the old Hope’s Peak.”

"O...kay."

 

* * *

 

In Class 1, on the other hand, Mukuro wasn’t as chirpy about her birthday celebrations. All around her, classmates were exchanging presents with each other, and a couple were writing last minute cards for family members. In the meantime, she was sat alone at her desk, watching with surprising interest the activities of the others. Hifumi was drawing a design on the front of a card from some anime, while the Imposter was wrapping a small box with what looked like a pen inside it. _Weird,_ she thought, _I didn’t think he had any family._ Ian was showing some song lyrics to Leon, although she wasn’t sure if they were his, and Byakuya was typing on his ElectroID. In the meantime, Toko was staring at him from afar (obviously). What caught her attention, however, was that Peko was making her way over towards her.

“What do you want?” She didn’t mean it to sound harsh, but wasn’t sure why Peko wanted to talk with her.

“Isn’t your birthday on the 24th?”

“Yes.”

“It doesn’t seem like you’ve been planning anything for it. Don’t you want to do anything?”

“Not particularly. Junko-chan wouldn’t want me around since she’s having her celebration at home. And being in Fenrir didn’t really leave me time to celebrate.”

“I see…” Peko thought for a moment. “Well, how about you do something with a handful of your classmates?”

“Hmm?” Mukuro registered a look of surprise at Peko’s sudden statement. “Since when are you the sort of person who would suggest that sort of idea?”

“Having Nanami as your class rep has the power to alter your way of seeing these sort of things,” the swordswoman smiled at Mukuro. “So what do you think?”

This made her think for a moment. From what she’d heard at the old Hope’s Peak, Chiaki had been able to bring the entire 77th Class together single-handedly. Besides, it wouldn’t kill her to try and make a few new friends, let alone celebrate her birthday with them.

“I guess so. But who?”

“Well me, to start with. And maybe Celes too.”

“I can ask Fukawa-san later on. Zoey-san and Scarlett-san seem like nice people too.”

In less than a minute, Mukuro and Peko, two of the most serious female students were planning ideas for how to celebrate Mukuro’s birthday. Deep down, the soldier was grateful that Peko had approached her, especially since she’d normally follow Junko everywhere. Perhaps bonding with her new classmates would be like a breath of fresh air…

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, in Class 4 (eventually), things were quite different. Since it was the only class of the five with no newcomers or Japanese students in it, you could expect activity very similar to what you might have found on Total Drama.

On this day, it was no different. Once again, Ella’s singing had attracted birds into the classroom, which Dawn was now talking to. In the back of the room, Eva and Jo were having a mini workout session. Tyler and Lindsay were lying on one of the desk making out, and Heather was sat with Alejandro (not making out, but they were coming close). During this time, Sierra was blogging about her classmates’ activities, while updating the pages on the four newcomers, which Sky seemed to be taking an interest in.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to start that.”

“I’ve been doing this for weeks now. But I’m still missing a lot of information.”

“Wait, wasn’t Izzy helping you?”

“Yeah, but I need more help. Which reminds me, will you come with me to the field? I think Class 5 have gym class.”

“Uhh, I don’t really want to, but you’re going to force me anyway, aren’t you?”

Almost as soon as she’d said that, Sierra was dragging her by the wrist out of the classroom and into the corridors. The doors swung closed, and after a few seconds passed, Justin knocked on the door of a tall locker in the back corner of the classroom. Not long afterwards, it swung open and Cody rolled out of it carrying a bag of candy.

“Thanks, Justin.”

“No problem, man. But you know she’s too busy working on her blog now, right? Either way, I thought you two were okay now.”

“We are, but she’s still trying to get more photos like the ones she lost during All Stars. Why else do you think she crept into the men’s locker room in that first week?”

“Oh I see,” Trent added. “So that’s what that flash was. I thought it was just the lighting.”

Cody shuddered. “Trent. Please don’t bring that up ever again?”

“Right. Sorry.”

…and you wondered why so little time was spent focusing on this class…

 

* * *

 

As the final day before Christmas break went on in Drama Peak Academy, Chris was scrolling through the reviews for each episode, smiling.

“Creating this season as a filler was a huge success! We’re getting tons of awesome ratings for every episode! Next I should find out which one of the new students is the favourite,” he started typing this into his laptop, while Chef just rolled his eyes and continued eating his chips.

“You’re getting carried away. You already forgotten what Byakuya told you?”

“Of course not! I’m trying to get into role with this thing, get into the right mindset, you know? Remember how I got rid of Topher?”

Chef just sighed. “I get it.” He then muttered to himself. “I’ll never understand showbusiness…”

The phone on Chris’ desk then began ringing, and was quite surprised when he saw the caller ID. “Hello?”

_“Hey Chris! What’s happening?”_

“Oh. Hey Owen. What do you want?”

_“I just wanted to say that being in high school with all the guys is just so…you know…”_

“Awesome?”

 _“Yeah! It’s like you read my mind.”_ Chef rolled his eyes in the background. _“Anyway, I just wanted to tell you some good news.”_

“Good news? What about?”

_“It’s about me and Noah. We’ve applied for a new reality show!”_

“Well, I expected that. Those are what I based your talents on in the first place.”

_“Not one of those shows, but another more awesome looking one! It reminded us of Total Drama World Tour, and it’s called the Ridonculous Race!”_

Chris’ coffee went flying across the room, forcefully hitting the back wall. They’d applied for THAT show?!

 _“We heard about it from Tomoko – I think she’s getting a job on it!”_ More coffee. _“Anyway, that’s all I wanted to let you know. Later!”_

Owen hung up, leaving Chris alone with Chef in the office, that now stank very heavily of cappuccino. As the repetitive bleep from his phone bounced off the wall, Chris was mentally repeating what he’d just heard over the phone. So much for beating Don based on popularity…


	13. Wishing on the M78 Nebula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomoko and her family celebrate New Years on the beach, a large building project seems to be taking place, and it looks like the students aren't the only ones in that town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who hasn't seen the previous notes, I'd advise going back over it from the beginning due to the changes that have been made, although one of them is still in the works.

The clock tolled 11:50pm on New Year’s Eve, as the Fukuhara’s and Costello’s sat together on the beach, that was located a long-ish way away from their house. Ethan had started putting together a bonfire, with some help from Ian, while Tess was humming to herself. Tomoko on the other hand was thinking to herself – at least until Tess’ humming seemed to get louder.

“Let me guess. Those are songs from that musical of yours you were watching with Junko.”

“They’re just addictive songs that you can’t get out of your head, you know?” She continued her humming, as Tomoko detected the smallest whiff of smoke. The two boys had successfully managed to construct a fire, and were proceeding to toast marshmallows. Ethan held up two sticks, which the girls gladly took and held over the fire.

“Weird. I thought this was New Year’s, not a summer camp.”

“The beach is close to where we live, so why not make use of what’s available for us?”

They sat in almost complete silence for a moment until their marshmallows began to turn slightly brown, when Ian spoke up. “Do any of you have any resolutions yet?”

“I do,” Tess raised her stick in the air. “I want to try and find out more information about the people in my class. Most of my friendships at the moment are based on popularity or talents, and I don’t know an awful lot about everyone. Well, except that Lindsay is equally as dumb in person.”

“Nice one!” Ethan bit into his marshmallow. “As for me…”

“Don’t be about anime, don’t be about anime…”

“I think I want to try and get more involved in school.” _Oh._ “I’ve already got into Leon’s band he’s trying to set up, but I still want to get on my class’ good side. I should also probably start studying more…actually, I should just start studying.”

Ian and Tomoko nodded, while Tess just muttered her surprise about it not being associated with anime, which honestly, Tomoko wholeheartedly agreed with.

“Ian?”

“…probably just to make more friends other than Leon.” That was it. He just then pushed his stick into another marshmallow and put it into the fire. Another silence passed, until Ethan spoke again. “Tomoko?”

“Hm? Oh, I was just thinking about how I used to spend New Year’s with my parents in Japan. It’s just making me miss them even more…spending time with family.”

“I get it. But for now, we’re your family.” Tess said. “Whether it’s real or not, that’s how everybody knows us, so we may as well keep it up. Even when we’re alone.” The girl smiled before checking her phone. As Tomoko returned the smile, Tess stood up. “Twenty seconds left!”

The other three stood up too, wiping sand off their butts, crossing their arms over and holding hands. The countdown that many would see on their TVs sounded from Tess’ phone, which was resting on the sand.

“Best of luck next year, guys.”

And so, 2015 arrived as the four teens sang Auld Lang Syne together (Tomoko more hesitant than the others), as fireworks illuminated the sky from the opposite end of the beach, and even further beyond.

 

* * *

 

Come 7:30am on January 1st, a group consisting of LeShawna, Harold, Gwen and Trent (the two latter were maintaining a healthy friendship, it should be added, following the events of Total Drama World Tour + All Stars) were arriving back at their places – for them, it was a rather large old building that a majority of people were sharing. LeShawna and Harold were sharing one flat, Gwen was with Courtney in another, and Trent had his own. The night before, they’d been camping on the beach for New Year’s.

LeShawna unlocked the door to their apartment while waving to Gwen and Trent, as Harold dropped the tent he was carrying onto his bed.

“Well, that was fun,” Harold said, making his way to their fridge. “We should do that more often.”

“Got that right. Can I get a bottle of water?” Harold chucked one over his shoulder, completely missing where LeShawna was stood, and instead accidentally knocking the window, one large hole allowing a cold flow of air in. LeShawna sighed. “Well, it was old enough to begin with.” The other just grinned sheepishly.

As she retrieved the bottle, she paused for a moment and looked out of the window, catching Harold’s attention. “What’s up?”

“Over there.” LeShawna pointed at some sort of building work in the distance. Although it was quite far away, it looked like it would be pretty damn big. “You think that’s gonna be someone’s house?”

“If so, Courtney probably begged her lawyers to make it happen. If not, however, I’m betting $10 it’ll belong to Junko.”

“You wanna bet? Okay…$10 on Queenie and Alejandro.” They shook on it. “But think how lucky you’d be if you got a place like that!”

“We could always try and find out back at school…wait, lucky?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“N-never mind,” Harold walked to the opposite end of the room, contemplating whether he should have bet on Nagito instead.

 

* * *

 

One of Kiyotaka Ishimaru’s New Year’s resolutions was to try and do more exercise, whether it be swimming, gym class or going for runs. His second one was to assist his classmates with school work (no matter who they may be), to help them get through the year. Right now, however, his main focus was the first resolution.

Kitted out in his blue school tracksuit, he left his shared home and began setting off down the route he’d planned out days ago. Mind you, he had to spend about half an hour on Google Maps and convince Kazuichi to set a drone in the sky to get more accurate photos, but it would all be worth it in the end. Out of the house, then through the row of abandoned buildings, up the small hill, then a break and back to the house following the same route.

All seemed to go well during the first half, and he was maintaining a steady pace. That was until he passed back through the rows of buildings.

While passing back through, he couldn’t help but notice a shadow coming from one of the alleyways. His first thought was that Mondo had been following him, just in case something was to happen, but he knew his kyoudai all too well – it was the weekend, so he’d still be hopeless to get out of bed. That had happened for the last six consecutive weeks. Given all that, Kiyotaka was ready to keep going beyond this shadow. The street was abandoned, derelict and liable to collapse, so going into an alley was NOT a good idea…even slightly.

This common sense was thrown away the moment he heard a noise from inside.

Purely out of instinct, Kiyotaka ventured into the narrow alleyway, which didn’t half stink. Litter was scattered all over the floor, and there was zero source of light in here. He pulled his flip phone out of his pocket, turning it on and illuminating the space in front of him.

…the sight was such an unexpected one, he wished he hadn’t.


	14. Despair Syndrome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another weak chapter but whatever. Class 3 are met with quite a surprise, Tomoko reveals her true feelings, and Leon's band-in-the-works gets it's fourth member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I feel like I'm making Tomoko into a Mary Sue, but it changes too much of the future story if I edit some of the story features.

**_“THE WORLD IS ENDING!!!”_ **

Most of the time, if you were stood outside your classroom and somebody screamed something like that, you’d be either concerned, or walk away without a care in the world. If it was a person who was normally calm and collected, or never said a word in class, it would be the first response.

In this instance, the scream came from Ibuki, so most people disregarded it.

However, those people who gathered around the door behind her were, for once, inclined to agree. And needless to say, Makoto was quite surprised when he saw his (near-enough) entire class gathered around the door. “Um, what’s going on?”

“Makoto-chan isn’t going to believe it!!” Ibuki peered round from Owen’s large form, lifting Tomoko’s hood out of her face.

“She’s right, Naegi,” Asahina added, a look of…concern? on her face. “You might want to have a look at this…” Makoto obliged, squeezing into a space between Gundam and Noah. The rest of his class heard a gasp, and a silence passed for a few moments, until Sakura vocalised their thoughts.

“It would appear Ishimaru has not appeared for school.”

Ibuki screamed again, and Gundam chipped in. “Quite abnormal for the conscientious one to willingly refuse to attend class.” Somehow, nobody could take their eyes off of his empty desk – normally, he’d already have all of his books and school supplies out, studying for…well, whatever tests Chris would slap onto their desk at the end of the year.

A few people did eventually decide to get inside and get on with work, but clearly everybody would often look back to the empty desk of their classmate, hoping maybe it was just somehow a trick of the eye. It wasn’t. And nobody seemed to be more anxious about it than, surprisingly, Tomoko.

“C-cheer up, Fukuhara-san. I’m sure he’s alr-right,” Mikan smiled, attempting to cheer her up.

“I didn’t think that you and Ishimaru-kun were that close,” Chiaki looked up from a video game (sure it looked like she was studying, but everyone knew there was a Nantendo Game Girl Advanced behind it. The exams are, let’s face it, non-existent, so does it really matter?). “Have you even spoken since you got here?”

“A couple of times…that one time at the start of the year, and another encounter when I was trying to break up a fight between a few people. He thought I was involved, probably.”

Mikan and Chiaki just kept on focusing on what she had to say.

“I mean, can you really blame him? Look at me. He probably thinks that I’m another thug type person who’ll do nothing but cause trouble. That’s why I tend to be quieter during class sometimes…I was sort of worried about that to begin with. He probably thinks my talent is something like the Ultimate Brawler.”

Nobody was ready to argue with that at least…the black crop hoodie spoke volumes.

“But really, I wanted to be friends with him. With all of you gu-- HEY!” Tomoko suddenly found herself in a headlock from the person she was sharing a desk with.

“If only Kiyotaka-chan could see this…there’s no way he’d think Tomoko-chan is the Ultimate Brawler if _this_ surprised her!” Ibuki grinned, rubbing her fist into Tomoko’s head. “Ibuki and her classmates are already your friends!”

“While it may not seem like it, your classmates are your friends by extension, whether you realise it or not.”

“Chiaki-chan is spot on! With someone as amazing as her in this class, Tomoko-chan can guarantee that she’ll connect with her classmates! And Ibuki will even bet money on it!”

“That’s reassuring and everything but…I think I may pass out if you don’t let go.”

“Eeeeh! M-Mioda-san! You’re choking her!”

“Tsumiki-san, I’m fine. This is just getting a little uncomfortable.” Eventually, Ibuki _did_ let go, and she sank back into her seat. “So, you really meant that?”

“Of course I did. And the moment Ishimaru-kun returns, I’m sure he’ll understand,” Chiaki smiled again, as she finished the next round on her game. She then stood up and made her way over to Hajime and Nagito, the former of which had got out a similar blue Game Girl to hers.

“It’s pretty cool, don’t you think?” Makoto spoke up. “Being in a class where we have complete freedom. We don’t have to worry about work so much.”

“Yeah. It’s almost like we aren’t even in school.”

“It’s Ibuki’s dream coming true!”

“That reminds me. Can I borrow your guitar?”

“Huh? Why?”

 

* * *

 

“Ah. Fukuhara.”

In the spare classroom that none of the homerooms were using, Leon, Ian and Ethan were gathered. There were three cups of coffee on a table in the middle, a drum kit set up in the back, and a bass guitar that Ian had propped up behind his chair.

“Hey. I was just wondering if you’re still trying to set up that band of yours, because I can play guitar if you need one more member.”

“Hell yeah! Sure, I wasn’t expecting you, but go for it!” Leon reached into his jacket and passed over a couple of sheets of music. Tomoko glanced at it: Let There Be Music. _Hum. Don’t think I know this one._ Regardless, she opened Ibuki’s guitar case and dropped the music onto the table.

“Because we’re trying to be a rock band,” Ethan said, “the audition music is only [the solo bit](https://youtu.be/zEt9PPBGfJA?t=1m46s).”

“Okay.” Much to her surprise, Ibuki’s guitar didn’t need any tuning (must be because she practices every day), and the song was easier than she expected too. There weren’t an awful lot of insanely difficult parts (or at least, nothing she couldn't manage), and it was slower than most other rock songs. And honestly, this made her want to listen to the whole thing.

By the time she’d finished, Ethan and Ian began applauding, while Leon grinned and gave her the thumbs up. “You’re in, Fukuhara!”

“Great. So what’s this band called?”

…

...

“…uh…”

* * *

 

“The band has no name?”

“It’s next on the to-do list!”

“And anyway, any name we pick is most likely already taken.”

“But you’re the Ultimate Songwriter. Couldn’t you name it in a flash?”

“ _Songwriter_ , not Band-Namer.”

“Fair enough.”

The three of them left their shoes by the door of their house. As usual, Tess was on the phone with someone, and closed the door the moment they came in. Ian went off to his room to dump his bag, as the other two looked at the calendar (it had been a present to the Costello’s for Christmas). The next day, January 21st had two stars drawn inside it.

Ethan and Tomoko smiled at each other.


	15. The Power of Granola Bars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomoko and Ethan celebrate their birthdays with their classes, then Duncan gets the idea that Ethan and Hina are a couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I've started my longer summer holidays, I should be able to post a load more chapters, and hopefully finish this story.

Going into school the next day, Ethan seemed to be in a livelier mood than usual, which was quite surprising to his classmates. Although he was normally quite optimistic and happy, it felt different today.

“Hey dude!” Geoff waved. “What’s got you so perked up today?”

“You won’t believe what Tomoko got me for my 17th!” He reached into his bag and pulled out two things: a wide square box and a smaller rectangular box. He opened the rectangular one and pulled out a figurine. It was of a black-haired girl with what looked like half of a scissor over her shoulder, dressed in the most revealing outfit that most of the boys had ever seen. “Awesome, right?”

“It’s your birthday today? Happy birthday, man!” DJ clapped him on the shoulder. “And I’m guessing that’s a figure of some anime?”

“Remember what I said about my username on the group chat? It’s that anime.”

“That’s the kind of stuff this show of yours is about?” Duncan added in. “Splendid naked officers and 70% naked high school girls?”

“It’s not just that! _Kill la Kill_ is a masterpiece anime! But anyway, this is what else I brought along,” Ethan flipped open the second box to reveal a large chocolate cake, topped with a layer of blue coloured icing. “Cake for everyone!”

“Wow! That’s really nice of you,” Chihiro smiled, as Mondo went over to cut up the cake. Duncan pulled out his knife and handed it over to the biker. “If there are any extra pieces, can I take one back with me?”

“Sure. How come?”

“It’s for Ishimaru-kun. Oowada-kun and I thought it would be something to cheer him up.”

“Hey, Fujisaki-chii, either of you two know why he’s not coming in?”

Anne Maria rolled her eyes. “You’re the mindreader, aren’t ya? Can’t ya figure it out yourself?”

“…fortune teller, not a mindreader. And for the last time--”

“We don’t need a reminder of your lack of accuracy,” Duncan handed him the first piece in order to get him to shut up. “Anyway Ethan, this was left for you by Izzy.” A granola bar. “Don’t ask why, but she and Ibuki have been handing these out to everyone in the school.”

 

* * *

 

Everyone in Class 3 now had a granola bar from one of the two girls, and were eating it in a confused manner as Tomoko came through the door.

“Tomoko-chan! Happy Granola Bar Day!” Ibuki dropped a granola bar into her hand. “You already look like you’re happier than you were yesterday.”

“Yeah. It’s my 17th today,” Tomoko said, opening her granola bar, only to have another two bars dropped into her arms.

“Well if that’s how it is, Ibuki says that Tomoko-chan gets two extra granola bars!” Ibuki then pulled her friend into a hug. “Ibuki also forgot to mention that it’s National Hugging Day in America!”

A couple of people shuffled away from her. Noah was one of these people, but he ended up in something of a chokehold by Owen, who was sat directly behind him. Obviously, it was meant to be a hug, but Owen’s size didn’t make it look that way.

“So Tomoko-chan, what kind of cool stuff did you get?”

“Well, a notebook from Tess, a couple of books from Ian, and some headphones from Ethan. And if you count the granola bars…that’s it.”

“WHAAAAAT?! Only four things?!” Izzy shouted. “You’re joking!”

“You’re making it sound like it’s the end of the world,” Hajime said. Tomoko nodded in response. “At least she did get something.”

“It doesn’t really matter. At least I’m doing something tonight with my family. Tess is paying for a meal, although there’s no hope of any cake,” she sat down and pulled out a textbook.

“Why don’t you think there will be any birthday cake?”

“Go to Class 5 and you’ll find out.”

 

* * *

 

Another day later, Ethan was leaving the school building with Duncan when he was intercepted by Hina and Sakura.

“Hi Ethan! How’s it going?”

“Oh, hey Hina,” Duncan grinned behind Ethan. “What do you need? Did Tomoko tell you about the cake yesterday?”

“Yes, she did, but that’s not what I was gonna talk about.”

“We were going to invite you to a training session with us, if you wanted to.”

“Oh. Well, okay. Just give me ten minutes,” Ethan smiled as the two girls walked towards the makeshift gym a few people had put together, as Duncan began laughing.

“You’re already going out with the donut girl?”

“Wha-- no! We’re just friends, and we haven’t really spoken in a while.”

“Still, for all I know the two of you could be getting it on behind the scenes.”

“Which we aren’t. All we did was talk for ten seconds."

"A load of people think you'd be a great couple. Kinda unexpected if you ask me. She's even inviting you to work out with her."

"Well, nobody expected you and Courtney to get together.”

“Ancient history.”

“Yet you were still obsessed with her after Gwen ended things with you, yet you still have next to no hope of getting back together with her.”

“Seriously? You’re going there? We broke up years ago, so what does it mean to you, you splendid naked nerd?!”

“I choose to take that as a compliment, delinquent!”

“Same to you!”

Hina and Sakura overheard the war of words that the two boys were happening as they walked away. “Perhaps we should have invited him over sooner.”

“Sakura-chan, different groups of friends have different ways of showing their relationship, so maybe it’s no big deal.”

“…I beg to differ.” Sakura pointed behind her, where just like at the start of the year, Duncan had Ethan in a headlock. No part of it looked friendly.

“Yeah, we should split them up. Quickly.”


	16. Rock Leon Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Attempts to name Leon's new band are met with disdain, Ethan introduces his class to anime, and the four newcomers are met with quite the surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite being the longest chapter so far (I think), it still feels rushed in places. There are references to Kill la Kill again, but no spoilers for it...I guess minor spoilers for DR3?

“I can’t believe I’m asking this to anyone…”

“But what?”

“You haven’t seen Amy recently, have you?”

“You’re right mate. Why does it even matter to ya?”

“She’s just been missing for the last two days. No signs at all.”

“No patronising texts?”

“Nope. All of her stuff was left untouched in her bedroom.”

As this conversation continued while Sammy, Jasmine and Shawn walked into the school building, Kyoko was sat on a bench, taking notes of the conversation and drinking a liquid from a white container. She didn’t, however, notice Beth approaching behind her.

“Hi Kyoko!” She then noticed the container. “Are you okay?”

“It’s a cold medicine, don’t worry,” Kyoko smiled. There was _no way_ she could tell anyone (who wasn’t in Future Foundation or the 77 th Class) the truth. Beth then ran back towards the building, while Kyoko kept making notes, in the pages next to the notes about Kiyotaka.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, in the spare classroom, Leon had pulled a blackboard in front of his three fellow band members. Written in big letters (in crude English) were the words “BAND NAME IDEAS”. At least, after Ian had corrected Leon’s spelling mistake in “ideas”.

“Alright. I’ll kick us off.” Once more in English, Leon scribbled a band name on the board. It took a while since he kept glancing at his hand for the spelling. By the time he moved away from the board: “the Rock Leon Project!” He made a sign-of-the-horns after announcing the idea.

The other three were silent for a moment.

“What’s with having your name in the title?”

“Talk about narcissism.”

“That can’t be your only idea, right?”

Leon gawked. “What’s wrong with it?” He kicked the board away, before thinking about ideas for a moment. “Okay, how about…Leon’s Rage Against the Machine?”

Ian: “Copyright.”

“Leon 911?”

Tomoko: “Narcissist.”

“Leon and the Bears??”

Ethan: “Why bears?!”

“No idea, it’s just a feeling. It sounds like it could leave an impact on people.”

“But why does every single name have Leon in it?”

“I founded the band, so I should have my name in the title! Other people do it.”

“Whatever,” Tomoko picked up her bag. “One more suggestion with _Leon_ in it and I’m gonna hurl. Later.”

“I should go too,” Ian wasn’t far behind her. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Leon looked over at the last person left with him. “Got any ideas of your own?”

A couple of people passed by outside, indicating they should get a move on. “It’s childish, but what about the first letters of each of our names? That’s T, L, I…and…”

“E? And people thought I was dumb.”

“Sorry. They were just saying something about Amy. Anyway, would _LITE_ be any good?”

“I’ll add it to the list. See ya,” both boys scooped up their bags and headed to their respective classrooms, with only one thing on Ethan’s mind as they left.

_Well, that was embarrassing._

 

* * *

 

The last of the popular clique, Dakota, had arrived in the classroom, but was surprised at the lack of evil cheerleaders with moles. Clearly, most of the others shared the same sentiments. At least things _should_ be quieter without endless rants about Samey. _Should be._

 

* * *

 

“Am I late?” Ethan practically threw himself down next to Harold.

“Does it even matter? It’s not like there’s any classes or teachers. We can just do anything we want right now.”

“Nanami’s always playin’ games, and Yamada spends every day working on some new manga, so why not us too?”

“I’m surprised Ethan over here doesn’t spend the whole day binging that _Kill la Kill_ crap.”

Said anime fan gradually turned towards Duncan, an oddly creepy smile on his face, leaving the class in dead silence for a few seconds. “Care to run that one by me again?”

“Uhh…”

“Because I am certain that you did not just call _Kill la Kill_. A crap show. Did you?”

“…maybe?” There were very few things a person could use to scare Duncan: that childbirth movie from TDA, and as much as he would hate to admit it, Celine Dion music store standees. Now he’d have to add Ethan’s current facial expression to the list.

Within seconds, he’d whipped out his ElectroID and was now searching the Internet (Beth: “for someone as cheap as Chris, he sure did go all out with these things!”) for something.

“I’ll show you! This will teach you not to hate on one of the most ingenious anime series of all time!” Another few moments, and the ElectroID screen display was on the board. “Anyone else seen this one before? No? Then I guess I’ll just have to show you guys what you’re missing out on.”

Pressing play on the video, everyone gathered round each other, except for Kyoko who was still reading through her notebook. The first scene appeared to be quite normal. There was a lesson being taught about the Nazi Germany era, while there was the ever-present student who naps every lesson.

Then the largest person any one of them had ever seen kicked the door down, making a couple of people jump. A couple of people did laugh at the teacher’s laid back reaction, however. What followed was a character introduction, the possibility of a traitor being within that class…and to almost everyone, one of the most visually stunning fight scenes on any show or movie they had ever seen before.

“Hey! This actually doesn’t look so bad if the rest is anywhere near as impressive as that!”

“Shut it! It looks like another character’s going to show up!”

They all seemed to be enjoying watching it. Ethan grinned smugly. No wonder he was the _Ultimate_ Anime Fanatic.

 

* * *

 

By the end of the school day, Tess had got into an oddly happy mood. She had even burst into her brother’s classroom and started dragging him upstairs to the other two. Reaching Class 5 first, she practically kicked the door open.

“YOU BITCH!!!!!!!”

Ethan looked over at Tess/Ian and immediately turned off the video, which was just starting to roll credits.

“My bad! It was just the show!” Class 5 had been able to sit through eleven episodes in one day (out of 25). “What do you two-- HEY!” Before he could finish, he too was dragged from his classroom, and then into Class 3. Almost the exact same thing happened to Tomoko.

The three of them were only able to ask about it when they got outside the school building and the final bell sounded. “What the hell are you trying to do?!”

“It’s finally done! Our new house!”

The three of them were quiet for a while, before Ethan spoke up. “Oh no. No no no no no no. NO.”

“No what?”

“If she’s talking about that massive house on the edge of town, then that will make the four of us the biggest Mary Sues in the school!”

Tess’ expression was blank. “Oh. It’s not that huge house over there,” she pointed at it in the distance, “but I managed to convince my manager to get a far better house built for the four of us! No more half-full baths and mattresses with holes in!”

“Or lack thereof.”

…

The house was nowhere near as big as the one everybody was fawning over earlier in the year, but was still pretty big. Something that Tomoko noticed quickly was the fact that it was a typical house you might find in Japan, which made her even happier to see it. Behind the split walls and the gates was a garage, two floors and a back garden. It even had the balcony on the top floor.

“All that’s left now is to look inside,” Tess opened the door, which led to a typical Japanese _genkan_ hallway. The four teens dropped their bags and shoes by the door, before setting off to have a look around.

…

“Check out the garage! It’s empty for now, but the size of it…!”

“If we add a few things in here, we could use it for band practice.”

“Once we get the name sorted.”

…

“The sofa’s completely intact! And the TV doesn’t have any holes in it!! What’s the kitchen like?”

“You won’t believe it. Over everything else, the best thing has to be the home bar dining area! So we don’t always have to eat in the lounge now.”

“Or the _new dining room_?” Other than that, there was a second dining area with a Japanese ensemble underneath.

…

“Hey, Tomoko. What’s your room like?” The boys shared a room, so had a bunk bed, while Tess got a king bed and an ensuite bathroom.

“Looks about normal, plus there’s a _futon_ underneath. It’s probably about time I started getting all my old stuff back again,” she responded, before looking out of the window. “Hey! Look at this!” The other three eventually crowded round on the bed, noticing how close they were to the beach. It looked like it would only be a five-minute walk from the end of the garden.

“This house is awesome! Thank God for my potentially-fake-sister and her connections!”

“It’s no problem.”

Now it was finally starting to feel normal again. For one of them, though, that was all to change drastically.


	17. A Dead End to The Ocean's Aroma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and Kyoko have a quick catch-up, and the sudden appearance of a corpse has more than one of the cast members on edge...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, the title itself should have hinted at the plot of this chapter.  
> Secondly, the next two will probably be posted together.

“You won’t believe how not crappy it looks! You _have_ to come over soon so I can show you!”

“So you’ve said. For the last week,” Junko was clearly getting bored of hearing about it. “We get it. So yeah, why don’t we all meet up at your place later today?”

“Sounds good,” Sayaka smiled. She then looked back at Junko’s desk, before shouting over at Sammy. “Amy still hasn’t come back yet?” She shook her head in response, before going back to the book she’d been reading.

“First Ishimaru-kun, now Amy-san? What’s happening around here?”

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile in Class 5…

Having finished _Kill la Kill_ a few days ago, Duncan and Geoff had surprisingly loved it (and not just for the reasons you’d expect). And so, most of the class had requested they start watching the English dub. Ethan, obviously, complied. People like Chihiro and Kyoko, however, were now occupying themselves with their own things.

While this went on, Makoto entered the classroom. “Kirigiri-san, can I talk with you for a moment?”

“Alright,” Kyoko stood up, placing her notebook back in her jacket and leaving the classroom. Closing the door to, she asked the one question she hadn’t been able to answer all week. “Do you know what’s been going on with Ishimaru-kun and Amy-san?”

“I thought you might know. No leads at all?”

“I know Ishimaru-kun went on a run the day he started holing himself in his room, so it would probably have something to do with that. But even Sammy-san has no clue what happened with Amy before she went missing.”

“Well their relationship was never the best, so it’s unlikely she would know.”

“I’ll try and ask around and investigate more.” Kyoko glanced back at her classroom. “On a lighter note, how are your class bonding?”

Makoto smiled too. “Quite well, actually. It surprised me that Fukuhara-san ended up becoming friends with Mioda-san.”

This surprised the detective for a split second, before she closed her eyes and smiled again. “I guess even the wildest characters need a composed person to stay close to. With us though, all the boys appear to be a unit now.” She opened the door partially, and motioned Makoto closer to have a look. On the screen was one of the strangest fights that he’d ever seen before – and given everything he’d been through with his classmates, that was saying something.

“Anime? Let me guess…”

“Yes. He converted them all to loving this show, _Kill la Kill_ , in one day.”

“As expected of the Ultimate Anime Fanatic.”

 

* * *

 

Chris, however, didn’t seem incredibly impressed with the anime being displayed on his TV screen. “Seriously, all of these groups always do the same thing! Class 1’s always quiet, Class 2 has the “mean girls”, Class 3 is _The Ibuki Show_ , no one ever does anything interesting in Class 4, and this anime is the only thing that Class 5 appear to be talking about now! Not to mention if the creators of this show find out, we could be sued!”

“But the ratings are still high, right?”

The host just sighed, taking a swig of coffee from his beaver flask. “Yeah. I still have a list of ways I can bring the interest back even more. Wanna try this one?” Chris pointed at the fourth one on the list.

“Not right now. Give it a month to make it appear more realistic.” Chef took a pen and highlighted it. “Besides, improvements are being made to the rest of the town, so you haven’t had to pay for anything yet. Tomoko and co. have a new house, and there’s that huge house everyone’s fighting over.” The phone on the desk suddenly began ringing. Chef groaned when he saw the caller ID. “Crud.”

“Who is it?”

“The lawyer shark herself.”

“Courtney? Oh boy, this could end badly.” Hesitantly, Chris picked up the phone. “Hello?”

_“Chris. The only people who are ever in this town are you, Chef, and everyone at this school, right?”_

“Well, the only other two are Makoto’s sister, plus a friend of the Imposter. How come? Is this about Taka and Amy? Because I don’t know the details either.” Chris nervously looked from the screen to Chef, and then back to the screen.

_“Then would you care to explain what we’re all seeing in the news right now?”_

“What are you talking about?” He then glanced at the newspaper that Chef had just dug up and dropped on the table. The main headline: MYSTERY BODY DISCOVERED NEAR REALITY STARS’ NEW DUMPING GROUND.

A short silence passed in the room. “I’ll call you back, Courtney.”

_“Chris! Don’t you da--”_ Too late. He then punched in a different number, while throwing another phone at Chef. A couple of dials later, someone answered.

_“Who are ya and why do ya have my number?”_

“Mondo. It’s Chris. How’s Taka doing? Is he okay??”

_“Uh, yeah. He started talkin’ to us again yesterday. How come?”_ Instead of responding, Chris hung up again and breathed a massive sigh of relief.

“How the hell is all of this happening?”

 

* * *

 

“S-Souda-san, will it be much longer?”

“Hurry up! I wanna see what’s going on!”

“Will you all shut up? This ain’t as easy as it looks!” With a few more minutes of nagging from his classmates, the display on the mini TV mounted on the cafeteria wall lit up, and someone instantly changed to the news.

Eventually, the girls of Class 2 reached everyone else, with Tess making her way towards Tomoko. “What’s going on?”

“No idea, but there’s apparently something on the news that happened not far from here.”

“It’s in the area?”

“Think so.” Everyone was quiet when the news reporter began talking.

_“--teenagers known not only across North America, but now in Japan. Not far from the location of the latest instalment to what is possibly the most well-known Canadian reality show, Total Drama, is what investigators are deeming a murder.”_

Many of the people began murmuring to one another in worried tones, shutting up again when Jo yelled at them all.

_“The incident is confirmed to have happened at around 1pm yesterday afternoon. After reviewing footage from the show, all participants and hosts have clear alibis, including the absent Kiyotaka Ishimaru. Many sources speculate that the sudden disappearance of the mean cheerleader twin, Amy, may play some sort of role in this case.”_

The news then cut to a person on the outskirts of the area. _“So far, nobody has come forward with an identity for the victim. However, if the following description sounds familiar, then we urge you to get in touch. The victim was a Caucasian female of apparent Asian descent, with pale blue hair in a ponytail, and green eyes. Average height around 180cm, 5 foot 9. Age estimated between 18 and 22. She was wearing a white hoodie and navy blue joggers when she was murdered. Investigations will continue in the area to find the motive for the murder. Back to the studio.”_

For once, not a single person in the room spoke. This was serious business. They were just over a mile away from the scene of a murder. Then everyone spoke at once.

“So Chris _was_ using us for a new TV show!”

“A-a-another murder?!”

“Hah, v-very funny Chef. Now drop the act…”

“…”

“I had a suspicion this was part of a new series.”

“Naegi-kun, I should go and help investigate.”

“That’s it! I’m calling Chris!”

“Hm? Tomoko? You don’t look so good.”

“…”

“Tomoko-chan?”

“I-I-I’ll be right back.” She sprinted through the doors of the cafeteria, back up the stairs again until she reached the bathrooms. Glancing over her shoulder in case anyone was behind her, she sat down on one of the toilets, locked the door and removed a photo from her bag. It was of her and another girl, who had almost an exact description to the girl just described on the news.

“…Satoko…how did this…why…?”

She didn’t leave that cubicle for the rest of the day.


	18. A Fateful Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unexpected guest shows up at Tomoko's house, and they learn more about each other than they originally thought possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be a recap chapter, but I just couldn't see the point, so instead enjoy what must be the longest chapter in the whole fanfic so far.

The temptation to reach for another tub of ice cream instead of something one _actually_ eats for breakfast, had become increasingly difficult with each day the kitchen smelled of Ben and Jerry’s Baked Alaska (over all the other flavours). This was one of the very few components of Tomoko’s diet over the last two weeks. Yes, _two weeks_ of sadness and time off school.

When the others were home, she was holed up in her room. When they left for school, she would just do whatever around the house. She wasn’t in such a terrible state that she’d completely shut everyone out. She just wanted to stay out of school to fully recover…and hopefully get beyond the point of questioning from her classmates. On the bright side, once she was able to pass word of the new house onto Satoko’s family, they started sending over all of her old stuff, from clothes to books to room décor.

While waiting for the next load of boxes to arrive, Tomoko curled up onto the sofa in front of the TV, with two s’mores Pop Tarts, some hash browns and a mug of hot chocolate for breakfast. She flicked through the channels in the meantime (anything but the news and re-runs of TDAc), hoping to find _something_ worth watching. Eventually, she decided she’d have to make do with Total Drama World Tour, which she deemed the best season out of the six.

This wasn’t just a break, it was a way to avoid the interrogations.

…

By 12:30ish, she had already gone on another shopping trip, and received another heap of boxes from her old place.

“Thanks!” Tomoko called after the car as it pulled off the curb. She picked up the lightest box and carried it into the house, dropping it on the dining room table. It looked like this was another clothing box, which she had no doubt grown out of. She guessed she’d have to hit eBay soon in order to get money to--

*CRASH*

“What the heck?” Tomoko dropped the clothing she was holding and ran outside after hearing some of the boxes spilling open. Almost all of them appeared to have collapsed over the top of someone outside, the only thing she didn’t recognise as her own being a black boot, with some kind of white clothing attached to it…

Hold on a minute…

Tomoko shoved a few boxes away, revealing the master Hooky-player himself, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, with one leg waving in the air. Hmm, not the sort of description anyone would expect about him.

“Ishimaru-kun? What are you doing at my house?”

“I should be asking you the very same thing, Fukuhara-kun!” He had one hand grasping his right knee, with the other one trying to push him up. Tomoko bent over to help. “You should be in school right now!”

“Same to you! Everyone’s been worried about you because nobody knows _why_ you left in the first place. Not even Oowada-kun!”

“And why would that concern you?”

“Because you’re my classmate!”

“Regardless,” that one word succeeded in breaking Tomoko’s spirit by a fraction, “I didn’t come this way to see you. I was trying to--” Kiyotaka stopped mid-sentence as his leg gave way again, sending him crashing back to the floor.

“Look, even if you’re gonna have that attitude towards someone who only wants to know why you’re skipping school, I still want to help. And I’m dealing with my own problems right now.” She picked up one of the boxes that hadn’t been turned upside down yet. “So if you _do_ want to stay here for a bit, go ahead.” And with that, she walked back into the house again.

The box she was holding, which was heavier than the last one, was dropped next to it on the work surface. Instead of opening it, Tomoko checked the clock on the microwave: 12:39. She left the box where it was and crossed over to the cupboard – most mornings, she was in charge of packing everyone else’s lunchboxes for school, and she left it in the cupboard for them to collect. Upon opening it, she spotted two.

Tomoko sighed. “Of course, he left his bento behind,” she took hers out and set it down, when she heard something dropping onto the floor, followed by the smashing of glass. Confused, she looked to the door, where Kiyotaka had literally hopped into the house, and somehow dropped the box on the way. Instead of an apology for what Tomoko could only assume was a broken memento from her old home, he just cleared his throat.

“I, um, like your new house.”

Still looking in his direction, she said nothing, and instead took out what was meant to be Ethan’s lunchbox.

 

* * *

 

How Tomoko was now sat on the steps outside her house leading to the garden, with someone in her class who probably hated her guts, she had no idea. Neither of them spoke, they just ate their/Ethan’s lunchboxes. Despite this, Tomoko was still itching to ask the one question that hadn’t been answered: why don’t you like me? As she opened her mouth to ask, Kiyotaka beat her to it, albeit with an off-topic question.

“Where did you buy this bento from? Because the food is fantastic!”

Well, she was chuffed, but that still didn’t change her feelings. “I didn’t. I made it.”

“Really? I wasn’t expecting that from you.” _Gee, thanks._ “It’s really good!”

“Thanks. Listen, I have an important question that I’ve had on my mind for the whole year.”

“Alright.”

 _Here goes._ “Do you hate me?”

Kiyotaka almost spat out his food. “What sort of question is that? Why would you think something like that?”

“I dunno. You’ve never really spoken to me this entire year, and gave me a weird look on that first day. I thought that you hated me more than everyone else.”

The moral compass was lost for words. “I think I might have assumed your personality too early. I just took one look and thought your talent was something like the Ultimate Brawler.” He paused for a second waiting for a response. When none came, he continued. “I know that I had no right to judge you like that, especially considering I was able to become friends with Oowada-kun, but I was just expecting that sort of thing from over here.”

Tomoko nodded in understanding. As she’d thought to herself before, the crop hoodie spoke volumes. “So…do you or don’t you?”

“I think it’s still too early to decide. After all, I don’t know anything about you yet. Other than the fact that you can apparently cook.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Tomoko ate something else out of her lunch. “It’s the same with me. I don’t know what kind of person you are either.” She was quiet again for a moment. “How about this? If I tell you why I left school, you tell me. Okay?”

“That seems fair enough to me. I should probably go first.” Kiyotaka put his empty lunchbox onto the step beside him. “Around the start of the year, I went for a run as part of my New Year’s resolution. As I went down the street full of the old buildings, I saw something in an alleyway. When I went in, there was someone waiting at the end. I couldn’t see them very clearly, but they were female, and bore a resemblance to Amy or Sammy-kun.”

“…of course it was her. No wonder she left.”

“What?”

“Nothing. And did that, by any chance, have something to do with your leg?”

“Yes, whoever that was attacked me for some reason.”

“Sammy would never do that, but there’s a chance that Amy would have done. I guess now it’s my turn.” Tomoko took a breath. “Two weeks ago, you might have seen what was on the news. About the murder? The victim was my old friend, Satoko Fukushima. She’d moved to North America like me, so I lived with her before I came here. When I found out, I ran away and hid in the bathrooms, so I left for a bit because I didn’t want to have to face questioning from the others.”

Both were left in silence for a while until Kiyotaka spoke up again. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s fine. That’s life.”

Another silence. “So, I’ve been wondering this about everyone. How did you get accepted into Hope’s Peak? The old one, I mean.”

“It was because of my grandfather. Have you ever heard the name Toranosuke Ishimaru?”

“As in the former Prime Minister of Japan?”

“Yes. _He_ was my grandfather.”

Tomoko looked genuinely surprised as her classmate continued. “He was recruited for Hope’s Peak Academy as the SHSL Manager, and after graduating climbed the ranks to become the Prime Minister. However, everything he did, he did without any actual effort, making him a genius. Thanks to this, he became more arrogant over time, leading to a corruption scandal. Eventually, he had to step down from his position. His business collapsed, and our family was left untrusted, with a massive debt, which still hasn’t been completely paid. He spent the last years of his life in silence, and when he died only family members came to his funeral.”

Tomoko was still silent. “His experiences taught me an important lesson, and because of it, I made it my life’s goal to surpass him and reach greater accomplishments than he ever did, with pure effort. All that is why I hate geniuses.”

“That explains the dark look I saw you give Scarlett that one time last year.”

That surprisingly made him laugh a bit. “So, that’s my story. What about yours?”

“Although this Hope’s Peak isn’t even real, I guess it’s fair.” Like he did, she put her bento down, after eating the last thing inside. “I was born into the Fukuhara family, as in Nobuharu Fukuhara, the CEO of the Murasaki hotel chain. My parents were both graduates from Hope’s Peak Academy’s 59th Class – my dad was the SHSL Student Council President, and my mom was the SHSL Chef.”

Now Kiyotaka was surprised. “Your mother is Emiko Akamatsu?! The famous chef Emiko Akamatsu?”

“Yeah, that’s her. Anyway, when Ethan and I were little, he was sent to New York to live with our aunt and uncle, although neither of us were really told why. Even though one of us was supposed to inherit the Fukuhara fortune, I didn’t really want to, so I moved to Canada so I could live with Satoko. While I was there, I applied for a job on Total Drama as an intern, and ended up becoming the best at testing each of the challenges.”

“I didn’t expect your parents to be that successful!”

“But don’t get the wrong idea. I’m definitely not a genius, or that successful personally. I’m more athletic than I am smart. Mainly because…promise you won’t laugh?”

“At what?”

“Before coming here I…didn’t attend school for four years. As in, I was a NEET whenever I wasn’t on an interning job.”

“Oh.” Tomoko braced herself for the incoming storm of yelling, which shockingly never came. “Was it because of how busy you were with your job?”

“Uh, yeah. But although I may not know the same stuff that everyone else does, I’m not an idiot!”

“I wasn’t implying you were! If you want, we can both try and help each other during the rest of the year. I can try and help you study for the final exams…”

“…if they ever come.”

“And you could help me improve my culinary studies. If that’s alright with you?” He wanted to make anything other than star-shaped rice balls in the near future.

Tomoko smiled for the first time in days. “Yeah, why not?” A drop of rain suddenly landed in front of them, followed by a couple more. Tomoko then suddenly remembered. “Oh crap! The boxes!” Forgetting about Kiyotaka, she ran to the opposite end of the house and out the door, collecting as many boxes as she could and dropping them in the doorway.

While following as fast as possible, Kiyotaka saw just how hard-working this girl was. He really _had_ made a misjudgement on that first day. From what he’d seen of Total Drama, she definitely deserved her title, even though the school wasn’t a real Hope’s Peak. After that talk they’d just had, he now thought the two of them would get along just fine.

Smiling, he joined her outside and picked up two more boxes.

 

* * *

 

By the time the school day was over, Kiyotaka was still at Tomoko’s house. He’d left a message on Mondo’s phone already, and then started helping his new friend sort through everything in the boxes. It was embarrassing to say the least when they got to the one he accidentally dropped.

“I apologise for breaking the photo frame.”

“It’s fine. I can buy another one on my next shopping trip.”

The door then opened, and four people stepped in – the three she was expecting, plus Leon. “Hey guys. How was school today?”

“Horrible. I forgot my lunch and I'm starving. Let me go and get it.”

“Sorry, Ishimaru-kun ate it.”

“WHAT?!”

“Get a grip,” Tess groaned. “Let’s go to McDonalds or Denny’s or someplace. There’s some places a few minutes away from here. Leon can come with us.”

“Sounds okay to me. What does everyone want?”

Tess said a chicken wrap and a frappe, Ian the Fillet O’ Fish and a coffee, Leon and Ethan both wanted Big Macs with cola, Tomoko wrote down nuggets and a coke, and Kiyotaka only wanted a Happy Meal (which got a laugh from Leon). Tess, Ethan and Leon left, while the other three people started moving the boxes.

 

* * *

 

“Fukuhara-kun, where’s the toilet around here?”

“Go into Tess’s room and use that one, but make sure she doesn't find out. Just spray some air freshener afterwards.”

“Thank you,” after he’d closed the door to her room, Ian tapped Tomoko’s shoulder. “Since Tess is out of the house, there’s something I need to tell you before she gets back. It’s about why I’m always so quiet.”

“Okay.”

“It’s because, well, Tess always used to talk for me back home. I never got a chance to speak for myself, so I kind of became a shy person. I thought being with you guys would give me a chance to make my own friends. And I was right, thank God. But I just get really tired of her controlling my life.”

“Count yourself lucky she didn’t decide to take you with her just now.” The door suddenly opened and closed downstairs, indicating they were all back. “Speak of the devil.”

In the meantime, Kiyotaka came back out of Tess’s room. “Just in time, Taka. If she knew you’d used her bathroom, she’d kill you.”

“Thank you for the fair warning, both of you.”

“And as long as you keep trying, you’ll definitely be able to make plenty of new friends in your class. Heck, maybe even in the other ones!”

“Thanks, Tomoko. Now let’s shift some of these into your room.” Each of them picked two up (or one in Ian’s case) and dropped them at the end of Tomoko’s bed, as another person poked their head round the door.

“Hey Fukuhara,” Leon said, holding a McDonalds bag, “I thought of a new band name on the way up here. It matches the type of music we’re looking to play, and doesn’t have “Leon” in it.”

“Okay. Hit me.”

“What’s your opinion on Kuwata Love Riot?” He got his answer as Tomoko hurled a pillow towards the door as it slammed closed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- for those who didn't know, NEET stands for Not in Education, Employment or Training.  
> I'll just say right now, I picked Akamatsu as her mom's maiden name BEFORE NDRV3 came out.


	19. Solution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group comes up with an idea to use being on a TV show to their advantage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: THIS WAS POSTED NOT LONG AFTER THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, SO I RECOMMEND READING IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY  
> Just as I thought it was going to get good again, I come back in with another crappy one.

The next morning, Leon came down the stairs in his boxers, scratching the back of his head, followed by Tess who was in her super short pyjamas. Leon and Kiyotaka had ended up spending the night at the Fukuhara’s/Costello’s house. Ian and Ethan were both at the table already, while Kiyotaka was with Tomoko in the kitchen. Since it was a Saturday, they didn’t have to worry about school today.

“Mornin’. What are you guys cooking?”

“Rice balls. I’m helping Ishimaru-kun practice making them, so you better like them.”

“Or just do what I did and grab some Pop Tarts,” Ethan shouted from the other room.

“Will do,” he responded as he went into the cupboard searching for the box, as Kiyotaka took the tray into the dining room. His were on the left, while Tomoko’s were on the right. Kiyotaka had triangles, stars and a couple of hearts that were falling apart. Tomoko, on the other hand, had intact hearts, pandas, and a few attempts at cats & penguins (which still looked good). Obviously, the others were impressed.

“Now you’ll be wanting to get in line for my sister’s lunches.”

“This one’s specially for you. I’ve been working on it for weeks.” Tomoko handed a plate to Ethan, which had a Pikachu shaped onigiri made from wholemeal rice. Within a millisecond, his phone was out snapping photos.

“I still have quite a way to go, Fukuhara-kun.”

“Still, yours are getting better. But sooner or later, you’ll have to start making things other than onigiri.”

“Alright, who else wants Pop Tarts?”

…

By lunchtime, Kiyotaka had been picked up by Mondo, and Tess had gone out, leaving only the band behind. They were sat in front of the TV watching anything they could find, when someone knocked on the door. None of them were expecting, so maybe Kiyotaka had forgotten something. Ian got up to answer it for them, and saw Geoff, Bridgette, and another boy he’d never seen before on the other side, with tanned skin and a dark pink shirt.

“Hey dude! Is it cool if we come in for a bit?”

“I…guess?”

“Cool,” the three of them went into the living room with the others, where Geoff greeted the other three in the same way.

“Hey Geoff, Bridgette and…other guy.”

“My bad. This dude’s my bro, Brody! We’re entering the Ridonculous Race together!”

“I’ve already planned out a surfing trip to Australia for the summer with an old friend, Finn, so those two decided to sign up together,” Bridgette added.

“Cool to meet you, dudes,” Brody held out a fist to Leon, which he returned. “You guys are so much cooler in real life!”

“Thank…you…”

“Anyway, we came over to ask you something, Tomoko.”

_Don’t be about Satoko don’t be about Satoko don’t be about Satoko…_

“We all know we were on a TV show for the last year.” _Oh._ “So we want to have another Telethon next week.”

“Woah. I didn’t see that coming. That could be a good idea, and the money could be used to rebuild the school!”

“That was the plan, dude.”

“Wait, so you guys _actually_ want to stay here?” Ethan asked in a confused tone.

“Well, duh. Sure, the place looks like crud, but we’re willing to make it work, so long as we can rebuild it.”

“Thank goodness. I’d probably be fired on the spot if you couldn’t.”

“Wow!” Bridgette could be heard from the kitchen. “Who made these rice balls? They look amazing!”

“That was me. Anyone else want one?” The seven of them then crowded into the kitchen, leaning over the rice shapes. The tray was empty within minutes.

 ...

“Fukuhara, are you gonna practice or not?”

“I’m trying to plan some stuff for the Aftermath Telethon special. There’s an old warehouse we can decorate in the area, and I’ve already sent an e-mail to the show’s producers.” She showed no signs of putting her laptop away just yet. “Afterwards, I want to start trying to find a song for us to play at some point.”

“Oh, right. They’ll probably want us to perform something on the show, won’t they?”

“Well, we’ll have to turn it down until we get **_the name_** sorted.”

“I’m thinking we can start off with some kind of pop-rock song, before going full punk.”

“Okay, print off some music and we’ll see.”

“Why don’t I play an extract of it for you guys?” They all crowded round the laptop as Tomoko pressed play. Only a few seconds later, all the boys grinned simultaneously.

 

* * *

 

“And…done!” Sierra slammed her finger onto the enter key. “I’ve finally made an article for everyone, even though I haven’t finished all of them just yet.”

Her ElectroID then vibrated beside her. A message from Chihiro had come through. She didn’t really speak to Chihiro an awful lot, but had always wanted to interview her personally for the blog.

**AlterEgoFujisaki:** hi Sierra :D I need you to do me a favour

**MrsSierraCody:** what is it?

**AlterEgoFujisaki:** can you give me the password to your blog? I want to try and add an extra page to it

**MrsSierraCody:** what about

**AlterEgoFujisaki:** for the new Aftermath show. It would be a good idea to expand online after the popularity of the last one

**MrsSierraCody:** sure thing! Give me a second

As Sierra logged off her blog and sent the password to Chihiro, she collected her phone and notebook off her bed, practically throwing the chair onto the floor.

“In the meantime, I heard someone’s been making rice balls!”


	20. New Aftermath: Return of the Telethon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geoff and Bridgette host a new Aftermath in order to raise money for the school: includes Sammy's true feelings about her sister, the return of Kiyotaka and Tomoko, and a poorly written incident involving a tractor trailer.

Friday eventually rolled around. Come 5pm, the long-awaited Aftermath show appeared on TVs up and down the continent.

“Hello world! It’s been a while! I’m Geoff…”

“…and I’m Bridgette! And we’re coming back to you with an all-new Telethon show, as a special bonus for all the loyal fans.”

“But before that, as ever, we’re joined by our newly extended Peanut Gallery, who are ready to take your calls!” This time, a handful of the people sat at the (VERY large) Peanut Gallery had laptops. And when they said extended, THEY MEANT EXTENDED. Almost three-quarters of the school’s population were sat there. “And tonight, we have a very special guest in the audience: my bud Brody! Hey dude!”

Silence in the audience. “Bro?”

\- - - [ _meanwhile in the green room_ ] - - -

“Hey, bro!” Said surfer got a pretty weird look from the other people in the green room.

“You know he can’t see you, right?”

“Sorry, dudes. I just wanted the burritos.”

“At least Owen’s on first, so we didn’t have _Cinco de Mayo_ in here.”

“I’m leaving now anyway. Break a leg, you guys!” One last thumbs up before Brody closed the door.

\- - - [ _back on the main stage_ ] - - -

“I guess he’s just feeling a little camera shy,” Bridgette said. “And finally, two more hosts will be joining us for the non-interview events tonight – Sierra and Topher!” The spotlight went up on the other two, who were stood on the opposite end of the stage, as the audience applauded. “Let’s move on. We’re live with this telethon to raise money to rebuild our school, which you will no doubt agree is just as crummy as everywhere else we’ve been in the past.”

“So if we raise enough money with this, we may be able to make it the spitting image of the original Hope’s Peak Academy! And like last time, we have gifts!”

“For $5, you can get one of the tubes of Lindsay’s lip-gloss left over from the first telethon, which we can assure you are still safe to use.”

“For $10, you too can have ears as bloody as ours while listening to the rock-tastic tones of Ibuki Mioda! Featuring songs such as _From Me to You Too_ and _I Squeezed the Baby Out But I Have No Idea Who The Father Is_!”

“And for $15, Courtney fans can choose between a Princess Courtney doll or CD, as seen in episode 19 of Total Drama Action!” (For those wondering, the prices are lower because a majority thought that was why the last one failed initially.)

A voice spoke from the Peanut Gallery. “Ibuki chooses not to comment on Geoff-chan’s statement about her musical stylings.”

“While you guys pick up the phones and start purchasing, we have our first interview!”

\- - - [ _backstage_ ] - - -

While waiting for their cue, during the introduction, Owen read over the schedule posted up on the wall:

_1) Owen and Noah interview – the Race  
2) Sonia interview – Novoselic and old Hope’s Peak  
3) Truth or Tractor Trailer – Staci, Celes and Rodney  
4) Sammy and Shawn – Amy’s disappearance  
5) Hole in the Wall – Duncan vs LeShawna  
6) That’s Gonna Leave a Mark #1  
7) Drama Brothers performance  
8) Hole in the Wall – Lightning vs Sky  
9) Tomoko and Kiyotaka interview – various  
10) That’s Gonna Leave a Mark #2  
__11) Brain Blast with Scarlett_  
_12) Leon and Ian interview – the new band_  
 _13) Hole in the Wall – previous winners_  
 _Outro) Sayaka Maizono performance_

“Woah, that’s more than they’ve ever done for an Aftermath special!” Underneath the list were the prices for the rest of the gifts on offer. A few people who were with them backstage had already phoned up to get the photos of Junko for $20 – she set the price.

“Owen,” Noah nudged his friend in the ribs. “We’re up.”

“Okay Noah. Then I can go back to the green room for the burritos!”

“Right.” Brody walked past the duo at that moment, with four or five burritos in his arms, causing Noah to roll his eyes. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up, big guy.”

 

* * *

 

“Well, we can get the hole fixed later,” Bridgette muttered as Sakura and Nekomaru tried lifting the tractor trailer out of a massive hole in the floor. Much to everyone’s surprise, it worked. “Anyway, I think we can introduce you to Geoff’s friend now. There he is!”

“Hey, dude!” Geoff pointed at one of the back rows, where Brody was sat two seats in. To his left was a girl with black twin-tails that went down her back, and on his right was another girl in a hoodie who didn’t pay either of them any attention.

“Hey Geoff! You guys are doing great so far! Keep it up!”

“Thanks, dude!” As the action continued on stage, Brody pulled out his phone and went onto the TDAc webpage, looking for the option to buy one of Sam’s old video games for $25. He realised Twintails next to him was watching. “You want one?” She just shook her head and turned her attention back to Sammy and Shawn’s interview. Brody just shrugged and selected the option to buy it, then looked up to the massive board suspended above the stage, watching as his $25 was added to the total.

“No leads, nothing at all from Amy before she left?”

“Exactly. None of her friends know either.”

“Who’d have thought a person as mean as her could even _have_ friends?” A couple of people in the Peanut Gallery laughed at this, but Brody was by far the loudest, slapping the people on either side of him on the back. Both girls looked like they’d much rather be sat anywhere else.

“I always thought that, but honestly…I’m still worried about her.”

“You? Worried about her? Really?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the way she always treated me. But she’s still my sister!” Hoodie Girl in the audience was genuinely surprised. “If it was _your_ family in this situation, no matter how they used to treat you, wouldn’t you be even slightly worried too?”

“Wow. No wonder you’re the good twin out of the two.” For the first time, she seemed to have won the respect of everyone from TDPI. Everyone was so interested in the mean twin’s “enemies”, that nobody saw Hoodie Girl slipping out of her seat…well, except for Twintails.

 

* * *

 

Only four people were left waiting to go on. Leon and Ian were watching the Hole in the Wall game from the green room, and Kiyotaka and Tomoko were waiting backstage. Tomoko wasn’t completely interested however – instead, she was watching the Peanut Gallery to distract herself from the inevitable interrogation. She kept watching Akane as she picked up her phone twice: once to buy the dinner from Teruteru, and again to buy “it” from Nekomaru, a total of $150!

“Tomoko and Kiyotaka?” A female member of the crew asked. “You’re due on in 30 seconds.” Before either of them could confirm that they’d understood her, she walked towards the stairs.

“Don’t worry Fukuhara-kun, everything will be alright.”

“I hope so,” she muttered as Bridgette and Geoff carried the show forwards, with Sierra and Topher clearing up the mess that Lightning made.

“Before our next interview, why don’t we check in our total?” Bridgette turned to the board as the numbers stopped spinning. “$650,500! We’re doing good, huh?”

“But I think we can do better, babe. Why don’t we introduce our next two guests? You may have forgotten about them for a while, due to their sudden disappearances, but I bet you’ll be interested in their stories.”

“Our next guests are the friendship none of us expected…welcome, Tomoko and Kiyotaka!” Tomoko came out first, with Kiyotaka not realising that was his cue until a few moments later. Both of them clearly looked nervous about being up there, but still acted the way they normally would – Tomoko and Bridgette high-fived, while Kiyotaka’s open hand clashed with Geoff’s fist. Once they worked out a greeting (copying the girls), Kiyotaka sat down on the battered sofa beside Tomoko.

“It’s great to see you two again! Loads of us were so worried about you!”

“Yeah, sorry Class 3,” Tomoko scratched the back of her head.

“Let’s just jump to the point. Loads of us have been wondering why you left so suddenly. Let’s go to Taka first. Dude, what was so bad that meant you couldn’t even tell Chihiro and Mondo? Your two best friends?”

Kiyotaka sighed. “You know the row of old buildings around here? While I was running through there, I saw somebody who attacked me.”

“Killer, dude. Any idea what they looked like?”

“They were female, but other than that I couldn’t tell anything else. I didn’t tell Kyoudai or Fujisaki-kun, because I thought one of them would do something risky. One more so than the other.” Mondo grinned from the Peanut Gallery.

“Do either of you have any idea who it _might_ be? Say, a certain disappearing cheerleader?”

“Geoff. It’s too early to make a decision.”

“No, it’s alright. It would make sense, I assume.”

“Now to you Tomoko.” _Oh crap._ “Why did you end up leaving? With the timing we can probably guess already, but…”

The studio fell into silence. The audience and Peanut Gallery waited for an answer, while Tomoko tried to work up the courage to give them an answer. Easier said than done, especially when almost everyone was looking straight at her. “Uh…well…”

“It’s okay if it’s too hard for you.”

“No, it’s fine. That girl who was killed around here was my old friend I used to live with. Her name was Satoko Fukushima if it helps at all.”

“It must have been awfully hard on you if it meant three weeks off school.”

“Actually, one week was to avoid you guys questioning me on it, and the third week was getting ready for this. But yeah, it was at first.” A quiet creaking noise could be heard while she continued, but everyone on set ignored it. The three aforementioned people in the audience, however (Brody, Twintails and Hoodie, who was now waiting by the door), _did_ notice a problem.

\- - - [ _meanwhile in the green room_ ] - - -

“Hey Leon,” Ian pointed in the top corner of the screen. “Do you see that too?”

“Y-yeah. Isn’t that the tractor trailer?”

“This could end badly…”

\- - - [ _on set_ ] - - -

Thanks to the noise getting louder, now even the Peanut Gallery were watching the tractor trailer just in case, as well as Sierra and Topher. From backstage, Sky and Duncan, who were waiting for the final round of Hole in the Wall, wandered around in search of a crew member.

“I’ll go check upstairs,” Kyoko, who was with them, said. However, it seems that it was too little too late. As she was halfway up the stairs, the noise got louder and a shout could be heard from the audience.

…

“Taka! Look out!”

Almost instantly, whatever was holding the tractor trailer above the stage snapped, and it came plummeting downwards from above Kiyotaka. Before anyone could do anything to stop it, it landed on the floor and sent Geoff and Bridgette flying from the force of it. Now the hole in the floor was even bigger than before, and a few people in the Peanut Gallery had been knocked over. Kyoko, who had seen everything from above, just stared with a level of surprise she hadn’t felt in a long time. After the cloud of dust cleared, everyone else had the same surprise as she did. Mondo was the first to say anything.

“N-no f**king way…”

Rather than being crushed under the tractor trailer like everyone expected, Kiyotaka was instead lying in the middle of the stage, with Tomoko beside him, one hand grabbing the shoulder of his uniform. Everyone came to the same conclusion: Tomoko had managed to save his life. How she’d reacted so quickly, nobody knew.

Another silence passed. Then riotous applause.

“Woah! Way to go, T!” The two hosts pulled them back up again. “I guess that about wraps that up, especially since we’ve lost the sofa.” Now the only thing everyone could see was a hole taking up an eighth of the stage where the sofa should have been. “Kiyotaka Ishimaru and Tomoko Fukuhara, everybody!” As they walked off, Mondo pulled his bro into a hug while lightly punching Tomoko on the shoulder.

 

* * *

 

The next day, everyone had waited in the school building (including Brody) for Chris to announce the viewer numbers and total amount raised. The rest of the night had gone without a hitch: Leon and Ian’s interview happened on the other side of the stage instead, and Ian didn’t panic halfway through; Sky ended up winning the Hole in the Wall; and some genius decided to edit the tractor trailer accident into _That’s Gonna Leave a Mark_ at the last minute.

“Okay,” Chris stood up. “Final viewer numbers at 8.3 million, and the total amount raised…” a dramatic pause, “…$2.43 million dollars!” Everyone cheered and applauded.

“Now we can finally rebuild the school!”

As the noise died down, Tess spoke up. “So, we’ve raised that much money, everyone’s back again…what do we do now?” Yet another silence followed, until Geoff and Brody responded with one word.

“PARTY!!”


	21. Beach Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To celebrate the new funds available for the school, the group throw a beach party. Leon's band have their first performance, and the owner of the large house is revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost finished with the first instalment (finally!). The song in the link at the end is Seize the Chance by Syuusuke Saito, but it's only the first part - good luck finding the full version. Oh yeah, and there's another anime reference (the clip used this time is the English dub, but the subbed version of the same clip is in the recommended list afterwards).

Within mere hours, everyone had started preparing for the beach party that the Surfer Dudes had proposed. While most went home to get bathing suits, or into the city to buy food, a handful stayed behind to move things to the beach. Stood on the very back end were Geoff and Brody (already in their swimsuits), who were observing preparations and texting out requests for certain items. Due to not knowing a lot of Geoff’s friends, Brody decided to help B with what he was building – a stage.

“Hey Bev dude! You need a hand?” B just shook his head in response and continued hammering nails into the wood. Nekomaru and Akane then came down the beach, each one carrying speakers (two for Nekomaru and one for Akane). Nekomaru dropped his in front of the stage, one on either side, while Akane dropped the last one haphazardly in front of her. Fuyuhiko and Peko had also collected the best quality volleyball equipment they could find from the school, which they started setting up quite far away from the stage.

“We’re almost ready to get this party started! While we wait, though,” Brody picked up a surfboard, “you wanna hit the waves?”

“You know it, dude!” The two high-fived and ran into the water, whooping, not noticing more people showing up gradually. Ethan and Ian had carried their barbeque from their house, while Noah and Owen showed up with numerous bags of food. Shawn, Jasmine, Sammy and Rodney also had numerous bags on them.

“Where are we even meant to put these?”

“Someone’s setting up a table over there, so we’ll have to wait a little longer,” Rodney said, offering to take some of the bags from the others.

“We’re here!” Kazuichi called out from behind the group. A few people nearby turned around to greet them, but even more did so when the group started laughing.

The sight was pure gold – Hajime was stood next to him, and the two boys were wearing identical swimsuits. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but in this case, they were camouflage patterned Speedos. Kazuichi still had his beanie on and a speaker under one arm, while Hajime was extremely pink in the face.

“Nice swimsuit, Hinata,” Fuyuhiko grinned, while Peko held back a laugh. “Good to see you and your boyfriend are matching.”

“Shut it Kuzuryuu.”

“Oh, at least we haven’t started yet…oh.” Hajime quickly spun around, where Chiaki was stood. She was in a white bikini that was slightly too small, with her usual backpack on. “Hinata-kun.”

“N-N-Nanami…”

“That swimsuit doesn’t look that bad on you,” the gamer smiled.

“T-thank you.” Hajime went even pinker.

“Anyway, I’ve brought along some board games for us to play, and Oowada-kun & Fujisaki-kun have ice cream.” The two pushed a large box onto the sand, leaving it beside them.

Harold seemed to be the only one that noticed what Chiaki said. “Kun? Isn’t -kun used for the male gender?”

“That’s right,” Chihiro came forwards. It was then the group noticed that Chihiro was wearing green trunks. “I am actually a boy. My old classmates already knew, but I kept it a secret again because I wasn’t sure how all of you would react.”

Nobody knew how to respond verbally, so they just nodded and smiled while more people gradually started arriving.

 

* * *

 

Once everyone had arrived, and the stage had been completed, the party went underway and everyone went about their own things. The group of popular girls took their towels to the back of the beach and started sunbathing – another heatwave had come around recently, so why not? Brick, Jo and Lightning were engaging in a volleyball match against Asahina, Mukuro and Leon, while the Surfers kept on trying to catch waves with Bridgette. Teruteru and DJ were underneath the marquee, cooking food on the BBQ (while also keeping their eye on the ice cream freezer and the paddling pool ice bucket). Tomoko and Ibuki had joined in with a frisbee game, with Gwen, Tyler, Scott and Mondo, while Chihiro and Kiyotaka watched from the side.

A larger group, for now, had gone wandering along the beach, Ethan being one of them. He had zero clue as to where they were heading, but got an answer soon enough.

“Why are we going to that huge house? Does one of you live there?”

“Nope, but we wanna know who _does_ live there.” In the group - other than him - were Courtney, Topher, Celestia, Sam, Cameron, Nagito, Gundam, Sugar, Cody, Sierra and Sonia. “Why not use this opportunity?”

There was a staircase leading up from the beach, with a gate at the top. Topher reached over to open it, but was quite surprised at what he saw when he got in. Four people were already there, two that everyone recognised, the other two not so much. One was a girl slightly younger than the others with short dark hair, and the other was a boy their age, with light brown hair and bags under his eyes. The other two were Toko and…the Ultimate Imposter. It was hard to tell at first.

“Uhh…who are you two?”

“These are two friends of ours,” the Imposter (?) said. “The girl is Fukawa’s friend and Naegi’s sister, Komaru Naegi. And this is the former Ultimate Animator Ryota Mitarai.” They both waved.

“So _that’s_ who Chris was on about.”

“Okay, two questions,” Cameron said. “First, how come Ryota didn’t come to the school with us? And secondly, why do you look so different?”

“He wanted to spend time working on an important anime of his, and thought school would make it a lot harder. As for me,” the Imposter now had long black hair rather than a wig, and green eyes, “this is my real appearance.”

“Alright then. So do you four live here?”

“No,” Komaru said. “We just found it with the gate open on the way to the party. Do you know who lives here?”

“Nope. In the meantime, mind if we join you in the pool?”

 

* * *

 

“Geoff and Brody! I am heavily insulted!” DJ left the tent for one minute, and the Ultimate Chef had managed to get into a fall out with the Surfers.

“What happened over here?”

“These two had the nerve to order a pizza while we’re slaving over this barbeque to provide for everyone!”

“We didn’t order a pizza! We ordered seven.”

“Geoff. That’s not helping anything.”

“Sorry D.”

“Anyway Teruteru, this probably won’t be enough for everyone,” DJ turned back to the chef. “It’s probably for the best, if you think about it.”

While DJ kept trying to convince him it wasn’t the end of the world, more people seemed to want to go in the sea for a bit. A large number of inflatables were by the stage, and a few people had started using them, especially the popular girls. Junko and Heather had been the first two to grab the lidos, and were now sunbathing in the sea, while the other girls were playing around them.

“Lindsay, I swear to God, if you get my hair wet…” almost instantly, her head was dripping. “Ugh!”

“You have to admit you had it coming.” Junko put a finger up to her sunglasses, clearly going into a smart persona. “After all, you sat up while Lindsay was splashing someone on the other side. Therefore you have no--” She was cut off as Heather flicked seawater into her face. Her persona then instantly changed into a royalty persona, then promptly changing to a crazier one afterwards. “You wish to challenge me? You made a grave mistake messing with me!” The two girls immediately began splashing each other while sat on their lilos still, the other girls joining in. Heather and Junko were so engrossed in splashing the other, that it was hard to tell whether or not they were mad at them.

 

* * *

 

“Hey Sierra!” Ethan, who was still in the mystery person’s pool, called. She emerged from under the water beside him.

“What?”

“How would you like to learn about a game called Waterdevil?”

“Waterdevil? What’s that?”

“I got it from an anime, and I’ve wanted to tell someone for years. The rules are simple: to win, you just have to drown Cody and give him CPR afterwards.”

“…you must take me for some kind of lovesick idiot.”

“Of course not! Look, here’s the clip.” Ethan grabbed his phone from the poolside and [searched for a video from some other anime](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjAn3uwecOI), showing it to Sierra. Once it was over, she surprisingly went back underwater. Ethan noticed her purple hair headed in Cody’s direction. Before not too long, Sierra had started re-enacting that video clip with him, and the others used that as their cue to get out of the pool and into the jacuzzi. At least, if they hadn’t suddenly heard the back doors open.

“Hey! What are you all doing in my pool?!” The voice was all too familiar to half of them.

“Chris? This is _your_ house? Oh wait, why am I surprised?”

“Well, duh! Chef and I have been living here for weeks! The 8 person hot tub over there, the pool, even a wood-burning pizza oven inside!”

“Uhh, Sierra, why are you tryin’ to drown Cody?” Chef looked at the blogger in confusion. Sierra stopped holding Cody underwater upon hearing Chef, and instead put on a smile.

“No reason. Off topic, can I get photos of your house for the blog?”

…

A third of the group headed back to the main party (after getting a message about food), another third stayed in the jacuzzi, and the rest took the tour of the house.

“Awesome!” Topher looked around in awe. “Is that an under the floor drinks rack? And one of those bladeless fans?”

“Just wait until you see the games room,” Chef opened another door, where there was a large TV and games console in the back, one of those multi-use games tables, and a mini drinks fridge. Sierra ran inside squealing and flashing mass photos. Sam looked interested in the games on the shelves, and Ryota was intrigued by the whole thing.

“Does Sierra really have to get photos of everything?”

“The fans rely on me to tell them absolutely everything there is to know about Total Drama. And I mean everything!” She dashed upstairs for more photo opportunities, followed quickly by Chris.

“The rest of y’all done? Then **get out of our house!!** ”

 

* * *

 

Upon getting back from Chris and Chef’s house, Ryota was happily greeted by his old classmates, as was Komaru by Makoto and Kyoko.

“Ah, Mitarai-kun-tachi! Right on time for the Ultimate Chef’s Special Barbeque Buffet…with some takeaway pizza.” Everyone was crowded round the table within seconds, tucking into the food. Those playing in the sea came back in to collect their food, while a couple who had already finished began putting a string of lanterns above the marquee, due to the sun starting to set.

Leon moved over to Ian, Tomoko and Ethan, finishing off a burger. “Shall we?” All four smiled, muttering something to Topher and heading behind the stage.

“How about more lanterns around the stage?” Sammy asked.

“Yeah, go for it!” She and Mahiru began stringing them round the front of the stage.

“By the way, what was the stage even built for?”

“We thought it would be best to have a performance from Leon and his new band.”

“Ooh, exciting! Do they even have a name yet?”

“We’ll see in a few minutes.”

…

“Students of Drama Peak Academy, how are you enjoying this beach party?” Only a handful of the crowd cheered. “Okay! As we come close to the end of our celebration, we have a special debut performance from our new band: Ethan on drums, Ian on bass, Tomoko on guitar, and Leon on vocals! Put your hands together for…for…uh…” Leon passed him a cue card. “Oh, okay, cool. Put your hands together for… _Punk Division_!” The crowd began clapping, and a spotlight illuminated the stage. Well, actually, it was the _Detect_ feature of Komaru’s Megaphone Hacking Gun, but it still gave it a nice atmosphere.

After a few more seconds, [Tomoko and Ian both played the first few notes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sMqb9NWkYU), with Ethan using that as his cue to begin drumming. And everyone was instantly hooked. Then Leon began:

 _Atsuku urun da hitomi_  
_Itasura ni sasou tsuyayakana kaori_  
_Atta bakari no shisen_  
_Hayaru kodō ni īwake wa ira nai_  
_Kanjiru mama ni yureru hito toki_

_Kagirareta kisekinara  
Tada nogasu te nantenaidarou? _

_Don't be shy sā oide_  
_Sousa motto motto sunao ni_  
_Karamaru kono te o tokitaku wa nai kara_  
_Kaze ni asobu kami midase kōun no megami_  
_Nidoto nai ima o tsukame_  
_Just Seize your one Chance_

 _Netsu o obi te ku toiki_  
_Yukusaki o terashi tomoru tsukiakari_  
_Ichido kiri no kōfun_  
_Risei o nazoru ama sugiru sasayaki_  
_Tomadou hodo ni fureru yubisaki_

_Shikumare ta kiseki nara  
Yoishireru ki nante nai daro u? _

_Don't be shy sā oide_  
_Tsuyoku motto motto chikaku ni_  
_Idakiyoseru kata o hanashi taku wa nai kara_  
_Hibii ta shizukesa bishō u kōun no megami_  
_Modora nai toki o tsukame_  
_Just Seize your one Chance_

Tomoko then let loose on a fast guitar solo, which was pulled off better than anyone ever imagined. So much so that Ibuki was screaming louder than the music through the speakers.

_Yubi no sukima sarari surinuketeiku kami ga  
Yume totomoni same te shimawa nu yō tsuyoku dakishime te  _

_Don't be shy sā oide_  
Tsuyoku motto motto chikaku ni  
Idakiyoseru kata o hanashi taku wa nai kara  
_Hibii ta shizukesa bishō u kōun no megami_  
_Modora nai nara_

 _Don‘t be shy sā oide_  
_Sō sa motto motto sunao ni_  
_Karamaru kono te o toki taku wa nai kara_  
_Kaze ni asobu kami midase kōun no megami_  
_Nidoto nai onaji yoru o omoi nagara_  
_Modora nai toki o tsukame_  
_Just Seize your one Chance_

Everyone exploded into a frenzy, Ibuki and Izzy more than the others, as ~~the nameless band~~ Punk Division came together at the front of the stage in a large side hug. The boys all whispered to Tomoko in unison: “great song choice!”

“Thanks.” Tomoko Fukuhara: guitarist of Punk Division, and the hero who saved her classmate’s life.

She hated it, but she could definitely get used to it.

 

* * *

 

Sammy had had the time of her life that night. At long last, her former teammates from Total Drama actually _liked_ her! Although she was still a little worried about Amy, it was a relief for her to finally be herself.

Upon arriving back at her shared home with Jasmine and Shawn, she was surprised to find an envelope waiting for her on her bed. Confused, she opened it, not expecting anything in particular. And after reading it, all of her worry dissipated.

 _I’ve left the school and gone to live with a relative. For the record, I don’t know anything about that murder either._  
\- Amy  
PS: did you really mean what you said on the Aftermath show?

 


	22. Normality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four students are revealed to become members of staff next year, one character announces their departure, and we see a non-anime based side of Ethan.

Two weeks after the beach party, now in the month of June, the students (this time without Brody) had been called into the gymnasium for their only assembly in the entire year on Monday morning. Chris, Byakuya, and a few others were stood at the front.

“As you all know, we were able to raise over $2 million, which will be used to rebuild the school over the summer, and most likely even longer. We thought that quite a few…changes will have to be made as we go into a new school year, especially since you’ve already agreed to stay here. Mainly, new staff members.

“For a brief period of time before coming here, Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri and Byakuya Togami were teachers at the Japanese Hope’s Peak. The reasoning behind this is a little too long for right now, but it will be explained eventually. So for now, in this new school, these three will become some of your new homeroom teachers. Kyoko will be in charge of Class 1, and Byakuya will be in charge of Class 2. As for Makoto, he will be the new headmaster of this Hope’s Peak Academy. And yes, we are a part of the official chain now. Oh yeah, and Hiro’s gonna be a teacher here too – not a homeroom teacher, but a teacher none the less. So I guess you could consider this their graduation day too.

“For the other three classes, you’ll be getting new homeroom teachers, who were also affiliated with Hope’s Peak in the past. We don’t know who has who yet, but we’ll let you know at the start of the new year. That’s about it for now, so enjoy the rest of the year!”

…

“Are you two sure you don’t want to become homeroom teachers?” Chris asked Toko and Hina afterwards, in what was soon to be the headmaster’s office.

“After everything that happened, I forgot how fun high school was, so I wanna be able to re-live it all!”

“And I d-doubt that anyone would want someone like me as their homeroom teacher.”

“Fair enough. That’s it for now.”

“See you tomorrow, Chris,” Makoto/Kyoko/Hina/Toko/Hagakure all left, leaving Byakuya, Chris and Chef in the room.

“Well, I’d say this year went pretty well, wouldn’t you Byakuya?”

“Of course _you_ would. We only had to deal with a murder mystery, a building on the verge of collapse, and a student who would have died **again** if it weren’t for Fukuhara.”

“Now do you see why I wanted her to come along?”

“So what do you recommend we do next?”

“Wait, wait, wait…we?”

Byakuya looked straight at Chris and Chef. “I will continue overseeing how well things go for now, but my feelings towards you still haven’t changed.”

“Cool. But for now, since Kazuichi’s already agreed to take down the cameras on the last day, we just need to focus on buying everything we actually need to rebuild the school.”

“You better not mess this up,” Byakuya finished with that, before walking out of the office. As the door closed, Chef turned to his partner. “I see he’s as cold as ever.”

“Yeah. Jeez, maybe I should have listened to Makoto’s warning after all.” Chris then retrieved a list from his drawer and waved it in front of Chef. “But since the cameras _are_ still up, what do you say we use “number four”?”

Chef grinned.

 ...

“Attention students! As we are nearing the end of the year, your finals will be taking place for the whole of next week. That is all.”

All at once, most of the boys in Class 5 screamed in unison, before promptly going back to their desks and leaning over textbooks. DJ and Chihiro, as well as most of the girls, just rolled their eyes.

Some of the other students were the same: a few in Class 1, some in Class 4, and only one or two in Class 2. Class 3, however, were prepared – you would be too if you had Kiyotaka Ishimaru as your classmate. But yeah, half of Class 5 were doomed.

“Why did we watch all of that anime?”

“Ethan, if I get kicked out of here, I blame you entirely.”

“You didn’t _have_ to watch it, you know!”

In Class 2, they seemed to deal with it a lot better, but something else was worrying the girls.

“Whatever,” Tess pulled out a textbook. “It’s not like it really matters to me that much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“…I’m leaving at the end of the year.” Sayaka, Dakota and Junko all crowded round her desk in surprise. “I found out in November.”

“Then why didn’t you tell any of us?!”

“Sorry. Hopefully it’ll only be for a year, and then I’ll be right back again. It’s probably the only chance I’ll get to expand on my career. But I promise I’ll keep in touch.”

“I’m happy for you. Really,” Sayaka put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll definitely miss you – we all will – but if it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, then we understand. _Only_ if you promise to keep in touch with us.”

Tess smiled. “It’s a deal.” The two girls locked pinkies to affirm it.

 

* * *

 

Later that evening, most of Tomoko’s family had something to occupy themselves with. Tess was sorting out whatever stuff she wanted to take with her to Los Angeles, Ian was in the garage practicing the bass, and Ethan had holed himself in his room to study. Tomoko was supposed to be doing the job that Chris gave her, but was quickly getting bored, so found herself outside the boys’ room out of curiosity.

Knocking a couple of times and waiting a bit, she entered her brother’s room, and was quite surprised by the state of it. Piled up at the back were some boxes marked with one of the two boy’s names on it. Neither bed was made, but Ian’s was far neater. There was a single desk and seat which they clearly had to share – Ethan’s stuff was on the left and Ian’s on the right. Right now, Ethan was leaning over a large stack of textbooks to prepare for the tests.

“You feeling okay?”

Ethan just sighed. “Yeah. Stressing a little over the tests, but fine.”

“Really? Since when do you ever hole yourself in your room, alone, for two hours?”

“I’m just worried about the tests, okay?”

“I doubt it’s _just_ the tests themselves that you’re panicking about. Tell me what’s really bugging you.”

“Persistent as ever, I see.” Ethan closed his book and put it aside, before spinning the chair round. “The fact that finals are next week also made me think about the future, and what’s gonna happen _after_ high school.”

“Even though we’re still freshmen.”

“Yeah, I get it. Still, the only thing everyone else seems to remember me for is being an anime obsessed drummer and nothing else.”

“I doubt that.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re the guitarist intern who saved Taka’s life.”

“And who said I wanted that?!” To curb her frustration, Tomoko just breathed and sat on the bed. “But if you _are_ thinking about the future, then what exactly do you want to do?”

“You’ll think it’s stupid…”

“I promise I won’t.”

“But I want to be a high school teacher. And no, that did not come from an anime.”

Tomoko pondered this. “Oh. That’s actually…sensible.”

“Not just any normal teacher, though. I’d wanna be a high school teacher that my students would talk to their kids about. I’d write specific tests for each student, set fun homework assignments, pull pranks and mess around with the students; leave cartoons when marking work, dress up every Halloween, show up in pyjamas for finals out of protest; play music in the background of classes, bring in breakfast food on mornings before exams, _and_ dole out candy as a reward!”

“I see you have this all planned out. But what did any of that have to do with being remembered as an “anime obsessed drummer” for the rest of your life?”

“No idea. I just thought I’d put it out there.”

Both were silent for a while, until Tomoko started talking again.

“Well about that, it doesn’t really matter how people see you now. So what if you’re obsessed with anime? That’s what makes you who you are! Did Yamada-kun ever change?”

“Uh, no.”

“Exactly! You won’t have all the time in the world to do the things you enjoy. When you become an adult, you’ll have a job, possibly kids, and very little time for leisure. So make the most of being a teenager and just do what you enjoy doing! And don’t give a damn what everyone else thinks.”

“You really think so?”

“Hell yeah. I mean, you take your love of it and cook up huge essays like these.” She held up a plastic folder – the sheet at the front said _Ideas of a Utopian Society in Anime_ , with three more full sheets behind it.

“And there’s even more that’s still to come. And about having no time – teachers gets summer vacation too!”

Smiling, Tomoko stood back up and opened the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to research the cost of a full set of gym equipment.”

“One second,” she stopped halfway through the door. “Off topic, what do _you_ think happened to Amy?”

“Everyone responds to all the attention differently. If she didn’t kill Satoko, she probably needs a bit of time to hide from all the bad press.”

“And if she _did_?”

Tomoko went quiet. “Then that says an awful lot. But I want to believe that she didn’t do it, even though I hate her.”

“Like almost everyone else.”

“Okay, yeah, most people hate her, but probably not everyone. The popular girls don’t, clearly you still have a thing for her, and after the Telethon, I have a feeling there might be one other person."

 

* * *

 

_Spare-amy sent you a message._

[ _Spare-amy_ ]: Yes, I did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I decided to get rid of my own OC. Tess is the character that I put the absolute least effort into coming up with a backstory and personality for, so I decided to write her out of the next fanfic, and then write her back in again once I've decided on better character traits for her.  
> And by the way, that text at the end was supposed to be from Sammy to Amy.  
> AND YES, the teacher thing for Ethan was inspired by Assassination Classroom, but it hasn't been adapted to an anime at this point in time in the story (May/June 2015).


	23. Skype Chat: Admin Edition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teens start clearing out the school, and the TDAc admin discuss costs on their group chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short/half-assed chapter. Something I don't think I mentioned, I use honorifics when the Danganronpa characters are meant to be talking Japanese, so when they're supposed to use them and they don't, that's because they're supposed to be talking in English.

With only one week left to go until the end of the year, most of the teens thought that it would be a good idea to look through what’s in the school, in order to make it a little easier when it came to the reconstruction work. Or at least, after finals ended. They all seemed to go well, even though they came out of nowhere. The only real talking points were the competition for the top spot between Scarlett/Kiyotaka/Courtney, and another “nervous-burp” from Sky in math. But now it was all over, they could start clearing up the building.

Three large piles had been formed in the entrance hall: stuff to keep, stuff to sell off, and stray building materials that could potentially be used. DJ and Chef were watching over the different piles.

“Okay, we have the volleyball stuff from the party,” Fuyuhiko held it up. “Where do you want it?”

“It looks good enough. Let’s keep it.” Fuyuhiko dropped the equipment onto the pile, as Mike came along dragging the broken Chris McLean dummy along. And as soon as both men spotted it, they both came out with the same thing. “No way.”

Various bits of wood that had been about to fall off the walls were thrown onto the building pile, and some of the other stuff from around the school. Most of the things that had been put in the storage room before were on the “sell off” pile – most of which were things that were easily recognised from various seasons of Total Drama: chicken hats, Heather’s wig from TDA, and for some reason the leftover remains of some Promo-Bots. Surprisingly, some of the McLean brand products that Chris had left there for self-promotion, went into the keep pile: the soap, the hot chocolate, and even the smoke machine.

Not everyone was actually there, since there were the likes of Noah and Owen, who were still packing for the Ridonculous Race, and girls like Heather who just couldn’t be bothered to join them. Scattered over the front of the school grounds, those who weren’t helping with the clear out were sat down coming up with ideas for what they wanted in the new school, and relaying the ideas to Tomoko (still in charge of researching costs and potentially leading Chris to bankruptcy).

“We need to have gym equipment, and better sports supplies!”

“If we’re becoming a proper school, we need school books and all that kind of stuff.”

“What about the simple stuff? Building materials and desks and…”

“Okay, okay. I’m supposed to be passing this onto Chris soon, so I make sure he gets it. Anything else, just message it to me later.” She closed her notebook and got back up again, joining Gwen. She was switching between images of the original Hope’s Peak Academy, and her sketchpad, clearly drafting some kind of plan for various rooms.

“How’s your stuff going?”

“Good, I guess.”

“Do I need to add any art equipment to the shopping list?”

“No, it’s okay. I think I have a few old things I can donate.”

“Fukuhara-kun!” Kiyotaka waved at Tomoko from a few metres away. She stood up once more and joined him for lunch, alongside Mondo and Chihiro.

“Hey, you guys. How’d finals go?”

“Very well. I tied for the top mark with Scarlett-kun.”

“I did alright too.”

“Thanks to your otaku of a brother, I couldn’t stop thinking about _DTR_ during the whole thing. So I think that answers that.”

“Right. It’s a good thing nobody gets kicked out, though.”

“What about you, Fukuhara-san?”

“I think I pulled through well enough, thanks to Ishimaru-kun’s help. The language tests will probably have the best grades, though.” Tomoko’s ElectroID buzzed in her pocket, and a message from Byakuya had come through on the admin group chat.

 

**Skype Chat: Total Drama Academy Admin (HostwiththeMost, ByakuyaTogami, AniMoko, FullMetalHatchet)**

**ByakuyaTogami** : alright Chris, what’s your plan for rebuilding the academy

 **HostwiththeMost** : idk what am I supposed to do?!

 **ByakuyaTogami** : the other students have been saying what they want this time around and Fukuhara has been researching it, like you asked

 **AniMoko** : I have some prices already if you want me to share them?

 **HostwiththeMost** : no

 **FullMetalHatchet** : yes

 **AniMoko** : _IMG_0164.png_

 **ByakuyaTogami** : …

 **FullMetalHatchet** : wow

 **HostwiththeMost** : I’m so ruined

 **AniMoko:** too bad. And when you think of how much of some of these items we’ll need, I honestly don’t think this will come anywhere near the money we got from the Telethon.

 **HostwiththeMost:** crap

 **AniMoko:** not to mention uniforms, new gym clothes if necessary…

 **FullMetalHatchet:** now if you’ll excuse us, we have a building to clear up

**FullMetalHatchet has logged off.**

**AniMoko has logged off.**

Tomoko couldn’t help but laugh a little, and she swore she could see Chef laughing in the background, with those around him looking very confused.

“What’s so funny all of a sudden?”

“The amount of money that we all expect Chris to spend on rebuilding. I won’t be surprised if we drive Chris to bankruptcy after we spend the Aftermath money!”

**ByakuyaTogami** : so now they’re gone tell me

 **HostwiththeMost** : what?

 **ByakuyaTogami** : Tess and Ian, Ethan and Tomoko…they aren’t really related are they?

 **HostwiththeMost** : fine. Tess and Ian are family friends of Ethan – that’s how I contacted them. I asked them to be on the show because I needed it to get popular quickly. Happy now?

 **ByakuyaTogami:** no. I want the truth

 **HostwiththeMost:** FINE! Tess and Ian are a random pair of niche celebrities from Los Angeles that neither of them knew before. I thought involving them would boost the show’s popularity

 **ByakuyaTogami:** that’s better

 **HostwiththeMost:** what so you already knew

 **ByakuyaTogami:** I thought it was obvious and worked it out in the second week. I was just waiting for you to affirm it

 **HostwiththeMost:** you’re a real prick, you know that?

 **ByakuyaTogami:** I have been called that a fair few times

**ByakuyaTogami has logged off.**

* * *

 

**_IMG_0164.png_ **

****GENERAL (QUANTITY PENDING)  
20 desks per classroom = 100; 100 desks = $11,752  
Noticeboard = $33 each  
Nest of 12 lockers = $506  
Wooden door = $150 (sliding if possible)  
4 shelf bookcase = $135  
Wallpapering a room = $595  
Painting a room = $305  
Average cost of wallpaper roll = $170  
Carpeting a long hallway = $1,350  
Large light = $320  
Carpeting = $20 per m²  
Vending machine = $4300  
Fire extinguisher = $25  
Changing cubicle = $430  
PC = $400

 ****MUSIC ROOM + REC ROOM:  
1 drum kit = $335  
Acoustic guitar = $100 each  
Electric guitar = $185 each  
1 grand piano = $4200  
Amps = $59 or $39 each  
Jukebox = $800  
Dartboard with cabinet = $60  
Pool table = $500

 ****OTHER STUFF:  
Oven = $300  
Gym machines = approximately $10,000  
1 garden shed (208cm x 186cm x 241cm) = $430  
Benches = $120 to $340  
Flowers/hedges = unknown  
Japanese From Zero books – approximately $30

 

**EARNINGS FROM AFTERMATH = $2,439,517**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter should be up later today.  
> Also, Mondo saying DTR is a Kill la Kill reference


	24. Hope Horizon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tess leaves for her job, and the remaining three newcomers agree to stay as a "family".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, the final chapter! I posted two chapters in a day ONLY so I could finally finish it, so you can read the last one if you want to - it makes no difference if you don't.

“You haven’t forgotten our promise, have you?” Sayaka asked her friend as she came out of the school building. The sun had started to set over the beach, and the popular girl group had gathered outside ~~Drama~~ Hope’s Peak Academy to see off their friend, Tess. She’d had to hand her ElectroID back in, but she was allowed to keep everything else from her first day (the tracksuit and gym clothes etc.).

“Of course not. I have all of your numbers, so I can easily get in touch.”

“At some point, we really should have another girls night. You know, when you have some time off.”

“Yeah. That would be good.” Heather and Junko smiled, Lindsay and Dakota was on the verge of tears, and Sayaka was a combination of them all. As they kept up the goodbyes, Tess’ limo pulled up in front of the group of girls, with most of the bags taking up the seats. “I guess I’ll have to set off soon. A 37-hour drive lies ahead.”

She went to Dakota and Lindsay first. Dakota pulled her into a hug, while Lindsay did a similar thing, only on a more extreme level. Heather just smiled and nodded, and Junko pulled both of them into a side hug.

“We’ll be thinking of you when we start ruling over the rest of the students!”

“I appreciate it,” Tess then came face to face with her best friend for the whole year. “Hey, cheer up. I’ve said already that this is for my career. When you see me again, I’ll _really_ be deserving of my talent.” The two girls shared another hug. “And I’ll definitely ring you when I make my first stop.”

The driver got out of the limousine and opened the door, waiting for Tess to get in.

“I’ll see you around!”

“Don’t forget to get in touch, okay?”

“We’ll miss you!”

“Tell Ian I said goodbye.”

“Actually, he isn’t coming. It’s just for me. But to all the others, I’ll speak to you tomorrow! And believe me, the next time you see me, I’ll have an even bigger name for myself than ever before – you can count on it!” The door closed, and Tess rolled down the window. She kept on waving to her friendship group until they vanished from her sight.

 

* * *

 

In the meantime, the remaining three – Tomoko, Ethan and Ian – were walking back to their house, waiting to see Tess’ limo drive past.

“So, it’s finally just the three of us.”

“Yeah, I wonder how that’s gonna work.”

“Probably not that differently.”

“I guess so.”

Tomoko was closest to the road, Ethan was in the middle, and Ian was on the other side of the path. The three of them walked together in silence for a little longer, until they saw the limousine drive past them, which led Ethan to shout after it.

“Good riddance, _nise-neesan_!*”

“So you realised we aren’t actually related?”

“Almost faster than Byakuya. And honestly, I hated her guts.”

“Why, exactly? What did she even do to you?”

“Nothing. And that’s the point. She did hardly anything with us, so it felt like she wasn’t even there most of the time.”

“You…do have a point.” Tomoko shifted her school bag higher up her shoulder. “On an unrelated note, what did you think of all this?”

“It was so much better than I thought it would be! My class is awesome!”

“And I’m surprised I made even _one_ new friend.” The three of them smiled. “What about you, Tomoko?”

“Don’t get me started. I got brought here as an intern, joined a band that remained nameless for months, lost my longest friend, and am now known as _the hero who saved Kiyotaka Ishimaru_. So…”

“Right. That answers that.”

“Just like any other day as a Total Drama intern,” she smiled at her brother and fake-brother/friend. “Okay, maybe that’s a _bit_ of an exaggeration.”

“You don’t say,” Ethan then heard his stomach rumble. “Watching all that _Kill la Kill_ this year, it’s really made me hungry for some _korokke_. Mind making some for when we get back?”

“Sure. Okay. But no Pikachu rice balls.”

“Damn it.”

“Hey Tomoko,” Ian spoke up. “What you said that time about making more friends and becoming more confident, I’m going to make that my goal for our sophomore year.”

“Good for you.”

“Are you going to try and do anything?”

“Try and get people to forget that I saved my friend’s life – top priority. But other than that, I just want to make sure that we can all have a normal high school life. One where fans aren’t always watching us failing in tests, or making comments online about what each class is up to.”

“That sounds just like you,” the two then turned to Ethan, who had been surprisingly quiet during the exchange, keeping his head down. “How about you, Ethan?”

“It’s not Ethan anymore.”

“Huh?”

“From now on, I want you two to call me by me real name…” he whipped his head up, sending his hair flying in multiple directions, while pushing a pair of glasses up his face, covering his light purple eyes. The sun emerged from some clouds at that moment in time, the light reflecting off the lenses.

“…Shinjiro Fukuhara!”

“…what.”

“I was wondering how long it would take for you to cave.”

\- - - [ _flashback_ ] - - -

_Her bag finally packed and on the bed beside her, her phone buzzed, a text from her twin brother coming through, who was still in New York. The message just said that he wanted to talk about something important._

[智子]: _what’s the problem?_

[晋二郎]: _I’m nervous about starting at this new school. Therefore I’ve decided_

[晋二郎]: _I want to be referred to as Ethan_

[智子]: _I think I get where that’s coming from, but I didn’t expect you to be like that_

[晋二郎]: _just please do this!!_

[智子]: _well if you say so, I’ll see you then_

 _Despite being dissatisfied with the lack of explanation, she accepted it and made a mental note not to use_ Shinjiro _anymore_ _and instead use_ Ethan.

\- - - [ _end of flashback_ ] - - -

“Don’t ask me why, but I was nervous about what the others would think of me when I started here, so I wanted to use a Western name.”

“I thought having twins named Tomoko and _Ethan_ sounded weird, but wait a minute – why go under a different name when you **_knew_** that other Japanese people would be going here too?!”

“Firstly, it’s what I did at my old school. Secondly, you’re not the boss of me.”

“That doesn’t answer the question!”

“Anyway, that talk that Tomoko had with me two weeks ago made me decide to go back to my old self, and not have to hide anymore. I’m perfectly happy being Shinjiro Fukuhara, drummer for Punk Division, and the SHSL Anime Fanatic!”

“Looks like two people have evolved over the last year. Well, three. I heard I’m getting a new talent for the next year – no idea what it’s gonna be though.”

“SHSL Motivator? SHSL Polyglot?” Ian started throwing out suggestions. “SHSL Street Food Chef, because I’m pretty sure you could rule with that one.”

“Either way, it’s decided that the three of us will be living as ourselves from now on. Ian Costello, bass player for Punk Division, Class 1’s shy-guy, and the SHSL Songwriter! And Tomoko Fukuhara, SHSL [Whatever], guitarist for Punk Division, and my flat-chested younger sister who saved her classmate’s--” Tomoko shoved him off the path before he could finish.

“Don’t make me go back on my _korokke_ promise.”

Ian just sighed happily while the quarrelling continued. “Well, the next year will be something else.” He felt himself fall to the side as the other boy missed a shove at his biological sister. And so, the shoving continued between all three of them for a little longer, until Ian and Tomoko both threw their arms over their (impromptu) brother.

“Let’s just calm down and get home, before we die of starvation.”

And so, the trio – Ian Costello, ~~Ethan~~ Shinjiro Fukuhara, and Tomoko Fukuhara – continued to walk down the path towards their home, ready to face whatever challenges the next year would throw at them. As a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *nise-neesan is Japanese for "fake sister"  
> I'd been wanting to change Ethan/Shinjiro's name for ages, so I thought I'd include it at the end instead of changing it halfway through (like I did with Tomoko). Part 2 of the series should be posted soon, and hopefully it'll be better than the last one.  
> See you then!


End file.
